Hey Diddle Diddle II
by macawtopia
Summary: With Lily & James finally dating you'd think the Marauder's lives would be perfect, but they're still having issues, like a neglected Sirius, Moony dealing with his first ever girlfriend, and the plotting young death eaters…
1. Snogging and Sulking

Well, here it is! The very first chapter of a Sequel to_ Hey Diddle Diddle_. Now, you don't have to have read that story first to understand it, but I'm not going to deny that it would certainly help.

Now, I may or may not go through with this sequel, it depends on whether or not I like where it goes, if that makes any sort of sense. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it =]

*""*

Less than a week ago, if someone had told Lily that she'd be sitting in James Potter's lap with her arms around his neck and snogging him senseless willingly, she'd have suggested that they visit Madam Pomphrey, and then forcefully escorted them there.

But now, diddle help her, that was _exactly_ what she was doing, and she was doing it in the middle of the Hogwarts library. Moreover, she was enjoying it… _a lot_. What _had_ the world come to?

"James?" she murmured into his mouth.

"Mmmmm?"

She pulled back, "We probably shouldn't be doing this."

James smirked and leaned in to her again, "So?"

He was about to press his mouth back to hers, but she blocked him with her hand, "James, we're _Heads_, and this is setting a _horrible_ example for younger students. So I think we should get back to those reports we were supposed to be doing."

"Reports?" James asked, looking very confused, "I don't recall any reports… And did you just say that we were _setting a_ _bad example_?"

Lily nodded, and James looked affronted, "But, I thought we were doing a wonderful job of it! Those ickle firsties could _learn_ a thing or two from watching us" James said, nodding seriously.

_Don't laugh, Lily, don't laugh! Giggling isn't allowed either!!!_

"James, this is _serious! _Kissing in the library is _totally_ unacceptable."

James pouted slightly, _"_But_… _you taste _better_ in the library."

Lily laughed despite herself, then forced a frown, "Nevertheless, we should be _working_. We've got our NEWT's coming up, in case you've forgotten. And by the way, I thought I _always_ tasted nice."

"Aw, _diddle_, you do…"

"No, James… _don't _you come any closer. James, this isn't the time. Don't… mmmmmm, _James_…"

He couldn't help but smile in the kiss as she gave in and moved her lips with his, and then he realized that he _still_ hadn't gotten over how much better his first name sounded when she was the one saying it. Then, when they broke apart and he regained his conscious thought abilities, he wondered how he had gotten so _very_ lucky. It just _must_ have been fate, _wonderful _fate that made Voldemort decide to try and murder all of the mudbloods at Hogwarts using a lethal potion, and it _must _have been James's good luck that made Snape use the Cruciatous curse on him and the Imperious curse on Lily. After all, if Voldemort and Snape hadn't nearly killed half of the Hogwarts student body, and if Snape hadn't tried to kill him, then James would never have gotten Lily to fall in love with him.

Oh, how had he ever gotten so _very_ lucky?

*""*

As Sirius lounged about on his bed, reveling in how wonderful it felt to be lying down and doing nothing when he was supposed to be studying, he noticed something amiss with his otherwise perfectly blissful Sunday afternoon:

"Hey, Moony?"

"Yes?" Remus replied without looking up from his Charms book.

"Where's Prongs? Is he in the Great Hall with Wormtail?"

Remus sighed inaudibly as he took a cursory glance at his friend. He knew that the answer to that question would likely cause Sirius to have a very bad reaction, and he was right, "Er, no, actually. I think he's in the library with Lily."

Sirius groaned loudly, "Oh. _Right_. I mean, of course he is, why did I even _bother_ asking? Where else would he be? Ever since last week, when those two _finally_ got together, _all he's done_ is make eyes at that girl! He's so bloody lovesick he's forgotten who we are."

"Don't you think you're being just a _tad _harsh there, Pads?" Moony asked cautiously.

Sirius frowned, "Well I'm _right_, aren't I, Moony? When was the last time the four of us hung out, just for the fun of it?"

"Er, yesterday?"

"That doesn't count, Moony!" Sirius glared, "James only talked to us yesterday because _dear_ Lily was holed up in the girl's dorm. And all he wanted to talk about was how wonderfully pretty she was, or how she'd laughed at one of his pathetic - stolen from me - jokes, or he'd go on and on about _that night_. I don't see what was so bloody special about it anyways."

Remus, who knew without asking exactly which night to which Sirius was referring, said, "Well, Padfoot, I think that the big attraction of that night was that, aside from James almost single handedly winning the big match against Slytherin and foiling You Know Who's plan to poison all of the muggleborn's of Hogwarts, he also kissed the girl he's been nuts about since third year and she told him she loved him."

"Well, besides _that,_ what really happened to make that day so diddle amazing?"

It took a valiant effort on Remus's part for him to resist laughing at Sirius's expression; he looked like a very irritated puppy. "Well, er, besides that… not much I guess."

Sirius nodded emphatically, "Exactly! The day wasn't _that _bloody wonderful! It wasn't nearly as brilliant as the time James and I broke into the Slytherin Common Room and TP'd their beds with about a ton of stringy pink Drooble's Best Blowing gum. Or the time we slipped wet-start fireworks into Slughorn's cauldron. But James is making it sound as if he and Evans single handedly led to the Dark Lord's downfall! Then again, I can't expect any sympathy from _you_. You're one of_ them_."

"One of them?" Remus raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, one of them!" Sirius exclaimed vehemently, "You're just another pining lover, who spends all of his time worshiping a _girl_ and leaving his _true_ friends behind in the dust!"

"This is about Geeta, isn't it?"

"_Of course_ it bloody is! You're no better than Prongs; you're with the girl _all _the time! And Merlin, I can't believe how often you two go at it! You're _always_ in the middle of full out snog-fests!"

Remus blushed, and tried not to be offended. He _knew _that Sirius was only joking, and that he realized how much Geeta meant to him and how much Lily meant to James, but it was also painfully obvious that Sirius was missing his best friends. So, with that in mind, Remus decided to do something he would never normally have done. "Er, Padfoot?"

Sirius, who had gone back to his sulking, didn't bother looking up, "Yeah?"

"D'you… by any chance, remember Operation Big Bang? The… er, the plan we made over the summer for the big back to school prank, but couldn't pull off because Prongs landed a detention?"

A slow grin began forming on Sirius's face, "Yes, yes I do. Why?"

Remus hesitated. After all, it wasn't too late to give up this idiotic plan and go back to his happy reading! But the hopeful look on his best friend's face forced him to go through with his crazy idea, "Well, Pads… how's about you and me finish off what we started?"

Sirius's reply was an evil grin. Hold a prank without James, huh? _That _would show him. And even if it didn't, this was going to be very, very fun…

*""*

So, is it worth continuing? Or should I just leave _Hey Diddle Diddle _alone and delete this? _You_ be the judge =]


	2. The Announcement

Sorry! Sorry! I really didn't mean to take so long, but because I took the time to figure out the plot, updates will hopefully be faster from now on. That doesn't mean that I'm gonna be doing the weekly thing, but I won't take months either.

Anyways, I just wanna take this oppourtinity to say that while this is still in the L&J romance category, it's much less about them than the first one was. This one is much more about the Marauders, particularly Sirius who had a very minor role in the last one. Kay, just wanted to put that out there =]

I hope you enjoy it, though!

*""*

BEEP BEEP BE-

"Oh, will you shut that bloody muggle contraption _up_! I'm trying to get some sleep here!"

Lily, who was in fact, already awake, chose not to listen to her friend. As it was a Monday morning, Geeta had to get up, and Lily had learned long ago that the alarm was the only safe method of doing so.

The alarm became progressively louder, and louder, and it soon roused Alice from bed. She woke quietly, stretched, and then got out of bed to stand beside Lily. Then, together, they waited by the end of Geeta's four poster bed.

Now, although getting out of bed was inevitable, Geeta liked to forestall the judgment as long as possible on Mondays. So, she resolutely buried her head beneath her pillow, and pretended that she couldn't hear the shrieking alarm.

BEEP BEEP _BEEP_ _BEEP_!!! _BEEP!!!!_

Finally, the hated device reached a dangerously high decibel, and Lily was forced to wave her wand and shut it off, or risk losing her hearing.

But that didn't mean that she and Alice were going to give up. Every Monday they went through this ritual, and every Monday Geeta would only get out of bed after they had completely given up on her.

So, the week before Alice and Lily had concocted a plan. An evil but brilliant plan. And all it involved was one little picture:

"Say Lily?"

"Yes Alice?"

"Would you like to take a look at this picture I just happened to find in Geeta's trunk?"

"Why, yes I would, Alice. What is it of?"

"Why, it's Remus of course! Who else?"

"Who else indeed?"

"Aw, look, he's blushing! He looks _very_ cute in this picture doesn't he?"

"Oh, he does. But do you know what would make him look even cuter?"

Alice giggled when she saw Lily's maniacly evil expression, "Er, what, Lily?"

"A nice, permanent marker _mustache_…"

At that, a shriek could be heard from beneath Geeta's bed covers. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Try me."

Now Geeta was torn. On the one hand, she had to maintain her reputation of not being driven out of bed by _anything_. On the other hand, her favorite picture of Remus was at risk.

Making a final decision, Geeta tore out of bed with a seeker's speed, and attempted to snatch the picture from Lily's hands. Of course, this would probably have worked better if Lily had actually been holding the picture.

But Lily was empty handed. Shaking with laughter, but empty handed.

"What did you do with him!" Geeta demanded.

Alice, who was also laughing uncontrollably, answered her with another question, "You actually _have_ a picture? I can't believe you actually _have_ a picture of him!"

"What?"

"Do you _sleep_ with it, Geets? Is that why you're always moaning his name into your pillow?"

Finally comprehending, Geeta sullenly said, "You didn't know that I had a picture of him."

"Nope!" The girls answered with an unsettling syncronicity.

"You just took a shot, and I fell for it."

"Yup!" Lily and Alice replied, still in unison.

"Diddle."

*""*

Not long after this, the girls arrived at the Great Hall for breakfast, and they took their now customary seats next to the Marauders.

Lily sat beside James, and they were soon busily arguing about the amount of food James had piled onto his plate. He argued that he was a growing boy, and wasn't he going to burn the calories at Quidditch practice anyways? Her argument was that stuffing himself at mealtimes was terribly unhealthy, and then, of course, it set a bad example.

Naturally, he countered this by asking her if she could even go to the bathroom without worrying if she was setting the proper example of it. Following her subsequent fit of suppressed giggles, she protested that she was merely taking her job as Head seriously, which was something he ought to consider sometime, and soon the two of them were so absorbed in each other that the rest of the world could have ended and they wouldn't have noticed.

Sirius, who was sitting on James's other side, definitely noticed _them_, though. His mood spiraled steadily downwards throughout the meal, starting at annoyed, passing angry, and ending at hurt: James hadn't said a word to him for the entire meal.

Remus, who was sitting across from Sirius, and who better than almost anyone, was starting to worry, "Hey, Pads?"

His only reply was a gruff, "What?"

Not really knowing what to say, Remus paused. Asking Sirius if he was alright would only aggravate him farther, and if Remus tried giving him an encouraging smile, Sirius would think that it was only out of pity and glare. So, Remus settled for the next best thing. "Er, could you… pass the marmalade?"

On the other side of the table, Alice and Geeta were chatting animatedly about a new wizarding band called "The Ruttles" and beside Remus, Peter was staring off into space, doing absolutely nothing.

At least, that's what it would have looked like to any casual observer. Peter was actually spending the meal feeling sorry for himself. His three so called best friends were all to pre-occupied to pay him any attention. Then again, that made this morning no different from any other morning really. The only difference was that the three of them were usually busy laughing with each other. Today, James laughed with Lily, Sirius was brooding, and Remus had taken out a book. Peter sighed.

Just then, all of the aforesaid activities were interrupted by a loud and booming voice, "ATTENTION!"

This interruption was loud enough to grab even Lily and James's interest, so they and the rest of the hall looked up to see Dumbledore standing at his podium.

After clearing his throat, the old wizard smiled and continued, "Thank you for your attention, and I do apologize most humbly for interrupting the most important meal of your day. I also apologize most humbly to you, Mr. Abbot, for causing you to spill pumpkin juice down your front. Now, as you all know, the winter holidays are fast approaching us. In fact, as today starts the second week of November, we have exactly one month before the holiday commences."

He was interrupted by a loud cheer, and then he went on, "Now, this year, we will be marking the final day of school with a special event: we will be holding our first ever Winter Ball, for all students to attend. It will be our way of celebrating together and promoting inter house unity during these troubling times. As I'm sure you are all aware, the world outside of these walls has become a _dangerous_ and unsure place. It is now more important than _ever before_ to know who our true friends are, and to stand by them. If we stand together, then we stand _strong_. So, I strongly encourage _everyone_ to get involved. Thank you."

Dumbledore stepped down from his stand, and an instant wave of conversation washed over the hall. Remus, with his rather superior hearing ability, could catch snippets of it from all around the room:

"D'you think he'll ask me?"

"Honestly? I dunno…"

"I should get her a present for the holls and give it to her at the ball."

"Oh yes! That'd be so romantic!"

"_Oh no_! I can't dance!"

"That's alright, I'll teach you. If you, er, you know… want to go with me…"

"Really?"

"I _can't wait_ to buy a new dress robe for this!"

"Me neither!"

"It's bloody perfect! What better time to pull off Operation Big Bang?!"

Remus gulped. That last sentence had been uttered by Sirius, who was looking loads happier at the prospect of causing mayhem. But the gleam in his eye held more than simply mischief: it held revenge.


	3. Trouble at Quidditch Practice

As he entered the Gryffindor Common room, Remus didn't know whether to feel merely annoyed, or downright angry:

James and Sirius had finally decided to cooperate for something, but unfortunately for him, that something was putting on the invisibility cloak together and watching him ask Geeta to the Winter Ball. Now, Remus knew that Geeta liked him: they'd been in a relationship since Halloween and it was now mid November. Nevertheless, they'd never actually voiced their feelings for each other, feelings which Remus felt deepening every day.

But he was afraid to tell her. After all, Geeta had had several boyfriends before him, including Sirius, while Remus had only ever had her. Before she'd boldly kissed him at Hosgmeade, he'd been too afraid to have a girlfriend; he'd figured that they'd all leave him if they ever found out about his condition. But Geeta had known about it the entire time, and it didn't bother her in the least. She loved him even after knowing that he was a monster.

Diddle, he didn't deserve her. But he also knew that he had best enjoy her while he could; none of her past relationships had ever lasted very long, and Remus's deepest fear was that one day she'd wake up and be tired of him, and he'd be left all alone again.

Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone loudly clearing their throat by his left ear. But when he looked, no one was there. Then he heard a very familiar and distinct voice growl, "Get the diddle on with it, we've not got all day…"

Ah yes, his dear friends were still invisible; waiting for him to approach the group of girls who were sitting cross legged by the fire and ask Geeta to the ball. Their understanding of how delicate the moment was was truly awe inspiring. How lovely that they understood exactly how much this girl meant to him, and "_Oooof!"_

An invisible hand had pushed him straight into the girls' midst, and after tripping over Alice he landed right in the lap of Lily Evans. The irony here, was that it had been James who pushed him. But, seeing as James was still beneath his cloak, the entire Common room was now under the impression that Remus had just dove onto Lily completely of his own accord. Diddle _fantastic_.

"Remus!" she shrieked, "What the Holy Hippogriff are you _doing_?"

Slowly turning beet red, he managed to stammer out, "I, er, tripped over the… um… floor."

Just then, James and Sirius appeared seemingly out of nowhere and into the scene. Sirius was snorting with laughter, and James looked distinctly ruffled.

"Tripped over the floor? Well done Moony!" Sirius crowed, "If tripping on the floor always leaves you in such _comfortable _landing places, _I_ should try it some time…"

This comment caused several reactions, the first of which was Lily scowling at the handsome boy and shoving Remus onto the floor. This was followed by Remus apologizing repeatedly and blushing even darker while Sirius continued laughing his handsome head off. Then Geeta glared at Remus, who was still sitting on the scarlet carpeted floor, "Well, what are you waiting for?"

Deciding it was now or never, Remus drew up his courage, "Er, Geeta, the real reason I came over here was to talk to _you_… I wanted to ask you if you'd like to, well, to go to the Winter Ball with me."

"Did you?"

Remus nodded.

"Well, ask then."

Remus, whose blush hadn't yet faded, settled for saying, "Er, at the moment, I'd rather not. Could I… ask you tomorrow?"

Geeta laughed: for some unfathomable reason, she always found Remus adorable. Even now, after he had just finished jumping into her best friends lap. So, she said, "My answer will be the same no matter when you ask me, you know."

Cringing slightly, in anticipation of this answer, Remus asked, "And what is it?"

With a grin, Geeta replied with a quick and to the point, "Yes of course."

Nearly everyone in the room was amused by how relieved Remus looked; everyone but him seemed to realize that she was completely in love with him. The only person who wasn't amused was James, who was still feeling slightly irritated by Sirius's little jab at Lily.

*""*

During the weeks that followed, Sirius and James's relationship steadily worsened. James continued to spend every possible moment with Lily, and Sirius responded by getting a girlfriend for himself as well. Her name was Diana and she was a gorgeous Ravenclaw tart who didn't seem to mind that Sirius was clearly using her. She was good for about a week and a half before Sirius dumped her, and asked out a pretty sixth year Gryffindor. Then there was a hot Hufflepuff named Rebecca.

Now, Sirius had always had commitment problems, but never before had he been as bad as this. And in his previous relationships, he had usually at least tried to care for the other person. Or at worst, he'd pretend to care. With these new girls Sirius remained closed, never complimenting them, never letting them get close to him. He'd just drag them to the nearest broom cupboard, snog them senseless, then leave.

James, who was still angry with his friend for slighting Lily and for not understanding his feelings for her, took a while to notice what Sirius was going through, but by the time of their next Quidditch practice he had resolved to do something about it

*""*

"What the diddle was that, Peakes?" Sirius bellowed across the pitch, "If you were trying to clobber the goal hoop, you did a good job of it, but if you were trying to pass the bludger to _me_ then you're aim's getting worse."

The other beater, who had been forced to swerve madly to avoid the bludger Sirius had aimed at his head earlier, was starting to feel very annoyed with his Quidditch Captain. "Well, if you had passed it to me _properly_, then perhaps I could have returned it properly." He growled, "Not to mention the fact that we're playing in the middle of a _bloody thunderstorm_!"

And a bad thunderstorm it was too. The sky was a dark shade of grey, almost black, and the only source of illumination was the frequent flashes of brilliant white lightning. They were so close that the loud CRACK of thunder and the lightening happened practically simultaneously. If Dumbledore hadn't lightning proofed the pitch, then they would all have stood a very good chance of being fried. As it was, they were all merely soaked through.

James, who was shivering as his frozen hands tried to keep his grip on his broom, decided that he had had enough. Pushing his dripping wet hair away from his eyes and readjusting his goggles, he called out to his friend, "Sirius! We've been out here for three hours; let's call it a day."

"Evans has made you soft, James. We need to get used to these conditions."

"It's not just me, we're _all_ tired."

"Stop making excuses and _hold your broom straight_!"

That was the last straw; the entire team was wet and exhausted, and Sirius was being mental. Was this about Lily? Was this all some sort of payback?

James leaned forward and shot his broom towards Sirius, not stopping until they were face to face. "Sirius, we've all _had it._ Let's go."

Looking into Sirius's grey eyes, James saw that they looked almost a stormy as the sky behind him. "Get back to your position, Potter. We're running play five."

Geeta, who had stopped chasing the snitch when she'd noticed the two, gulped; Sirius looked livid.

Hardly noticing that the rest of the players had stopped to watch them, James glared back at his friend, "Look Sirius, whatever your problem is, keep it to yourself. We're _done_."

Sirius narrowed his eyes, "_My_ problem? I'm not the one with a problem here James. I'm not the one who's abandoned his friends for some chit." Then Sirius tried to fly away, but James cut him off.

"_Some chit_! Sirius, this is _Lily_ we're talking about. _My_ Lily!"

"Guys... this is going too far." Geeta interjected, but the boys ignored her.

"At this point, I wouldn't' care if she was the _bloody Queen herself," _Sirius growled, "she's changed you. She's all you think and talk about. You've become a bleeding _pansy_!"

"At least I'm not a _womanizer_. Sirius, d'you honestly think I don't know about what you've been up to for the past few weeks?"

Sirius rolled his eyes, "Aw, so you _do_ care."

At that point James lost it. "Of course I care! I'm you bloody BEST FRIEND! I'm trying to help you!"

"Stop it! Stop it right now!" Geeta yelled, but she was ignored once more.

Sirius blinked, and then looked James right in the eye," You want to help me? Then leave me _the hell_ alone," he growled softly, his voice barely audible in the howling wind, "Put your leash back on, and crawl home to Evans."

And with that Sirius flew away, taking all remnants of their friendship with him. James shot off as well, but in the opposite direction, to the sound of Geeta shrieking, "Where are you going?! _Stop him; _he's your _best friend_! Come back!! What about the bloody TEAM? Ugh, you boys are such _MULES!!"_

Realizing that she was alone and that the rest of the team had already left to shower, Geeta decided that she had to take matters into her own hands. Instead of landing and going to change, she flew out of the pitch, over the grounds and to the castle. Then she hastily landed, threw her broom aside and bolted through the castle doors in the direction of the library. There, as she had expected, she saw Remus idly flippping through a potions book.

Marching up to him, she growled his name to get his attention. Remus looked up, and his eyes widened as he took in her mussed up, irritated and soaking wet appearence. She was still wearing her quidditch robes. "What happened?"

Geeta glared, "Your bloody _best friends _happened. They've finally blown up at eachother."

Remus sighed; he had definately seen this coming. But Geeta wasn't finished yet. She leaned in to him so that her dark eyes locked on his blue ones, "_Fix them._ Or our team won't stand a chance."

Knowing that stopping this fight was easier said then done, Remus started saying, "But they -"

"_Do it_, Remus!"

Realizing that he was powerless to do otherwise, he gave her a reluctant nod.

*""*

'Kay, I know that It's nothing like the first one, but it does get better, I promise!

P.S. Happy Mothers day!!!

P.P.S. Please review =]


	4. Transfiguration

Some may say that this update is silly, and rather pointless... but I absolutely LOVED writing this chapter, so please read it anyways =]

*""*

If relations between James and Sirius had been strained before, then they were now shattered beyond recognition. Hard as Remus tried to get the two boys to get along, his efforts always proved fruitless. The poor boy spent much of the next week traveling back and forth between the two, in a vain attempt to keep them both happy, but they were starting to wear the werewolf down.

Lily noticed this all, but whenever she tried to ask James what had happened between him and his handsome friend, he remained mum. As could be imagined, she didn't take his silence well.

"Just tell me what's wrong! What kind of relationship are we going to have if you don't confide in me?"

James groaned, "Just drop it, will you Lily? This is between me and him."

"No, it isn't! Your little fight is all you think about; you're constantly stressed out, you're rude to everyone for no reason… You _can't_ expect me to just ignore it all."

Getting irritated, James replied with, "Diddle, Evans, you're starting to sound like my mother."

"Because I _care_ about you, you idiot! Merlin knows why, but I do."

Her emerald eyes bored into his hazel ones, and for a moment, James contemplated just telling her the truth.

_No! If she knew that this fight had happened because of her, she'd probably decide to leave me "For my own good". And I couldn't take that…_

James sighed, "If you care about me, then _please_, just drop it Lily."

His hazel eyes pleaded to her silently, and she had to give in. With a soft sigh, Lily reached up and ran her fingers through his dark hair, "Fine, James. For you, I'll drop it."

But in her head she silently added, "For now."

Lily had a feeling that whatever James and Sirius were fighting about involved her, and wondering what had happened was driving her nearly insane. She and James were slowly growing apart over this, and she could feel it.

*""*

The following day was the day Professor McGonagall announced the final assessment project for her NEWT level Transfiguration class.

"This year, as we have a record number of students taking this course, I have decided that the final assessment will be done in groups. To be precice you'll be working in three's; with the groups you are currently seated in, and you will be asked to transfigure an ordinary bowl of fruit into a miniature zoo. You will also have to create a guide, going through all of the steps you took to arrive at the final product. A list of required animals and their exact dimensions is being passed out now."

As usual, the only words the students appeared to have heard were the ones concerning their group assignments. Any other year, and most of the class would have been delighted with their current group arrangements: Lily was grouped with Alice and Geeta, while James was grouped with Sirius and Remus.

Today, though, most of them felt that they'd give anything to change groups. Lily wanted to be with James; the renowned Transfiguration prodigy, and James wanted to be in any group but the one he was in.

Perhaps he would have felt better about his current location had be been moved to Peter's spot though. Peter usually sat alone at the table behind the other Marauders, so he had been placed in another group. Snape and Mulciber's group, to be exact.

Needles to say there was very little talking at that particular table. The same could be said of the Marauders table.

"Moony, could you please pass me that plum?"

Remus silently handed James the purple fruit, and then watched as his friend proceeded to shoot orange sparks at its side.

"Moony, could you please tell Potter that he's using the wrong spell? He's going to cause a fire."

James looked up at Sirius for the first time that day with a fierce glare, "So I'm 'Potter' now, am I?"

Feigning indifference, Sirius turned to Remus, "Sorry, d'you say something Moony?"

"Oh yeah, _that's_ mature." James said, rolling his eyes.

Finally deciding to face James, Sirius sent him a look that would send a lesser man running, "So _I'm_ the immature one? You need to take a look in the mirror, mate… and no, _not_ to admire your _overgrown head_."

"At least _I_ haven't sunk to _stealing my insults from girls, _you unfortunate result of _inbreeding_."

Sirius shrugged, "Well, in this case Evans _does_ have a point. Your head is massive, and it's a wonder your scrawny little neck can hold it up. Now, Remus, pass me that banana."

James frowned, "No, pass _me _the banana, Moony."

"Give me that _bloody _banana!" Sirius glowered, leaning in to his lycanthropic friend.

When Remus didn't move, James smirked, "See, Black? You're not worthy to touch the banana!"

"I'm more banana worthy than _you_ are."

"Are not.

"Are _too_."

"In your dreams."

"Please, Potter. _I _don't dream about fruit. _I_ happen to have a life."

James, who had been glaring at Sirius, turned back to his other friend, "Just give me that _diddle_ banana already!"

Remus, who knew perfectly well that his friends really couldn't care less about the tropical fruit, sighed, "Guys, there's only _one_ banana."

Sirius scoffed, "Thank you, _oh brilliant one_. D'you hear that? Apparently, Moony's figured out that there's _only one_ _banana_."

With a mad glint in his eye, James replied with, "Yeah, and it's _mine!_"

He made a lunge for it, and tugged it from Remus's hand.

"No, it's mine!" Sirius declared, diving over the table to grab the banana's other end. This was followed by a fierce tug of war, in which the sides of the banana were squeezed almost to the breaking point. The insides of the fruit were forced into the middle, which began to bulge precariously.

By that time, James and Sirius were practically rolling on the floor, and cussing up a storm of colorful insults for each other.

"Bloody, arrogant, shampoo loving _dog_!"

"Pathetic, mop topped, banana loving _git_!"

Here the seams of the banana began to swell, slowly pulling apart.

"Banana brain!"

"Banana butt!"

"Banana bread!"

"You diddle _idiot_."

By now the poor banana was nearing it's untimely end. The middle had swollen to a dangerous size, and any access pressure would likely blow the thing apart like Little Boy in Hiroshima.

"Diddle son of a _death eather_!"

"_Beer bottle _glasses wearer!

But then, they were interrupted by the banana finally erupting and hitting something to their left with a loud SPLAT! And by a very familiar, and _very_ angry voice shouting, "ENOUGH!"

Both teens instantly froze and looked left, then up into the enraged face of Minerva McGonagall. And they gulped:

Minerva McGonagall was probably the only person in the world who could look _that_ frightening through a face full of dripping banana, _including _Voldemort himself.

When she spoke, her voice was icy, but deadly calm. "Potter, Black, my office. _Now_."

Not wanting to risk getting her even angrier, the two did exactly as they were told. But the moment the three of them had left the room, the entire class burst into one of the loudest bouts of laughter the room had ever seen.


	5. Important Conversations

Alright, the rest of this note is only really applicable to those who've read the first story. If you haven't, you can skip over to the story =]

Now, if you've read the first one, you'll probably remember how it ended (you know, the Dumbledore thing?) Well, this one is going to end in a simmilar-ish way. But, I'd really appreciate it if people would stop messaging me to ask if the word, "banana" is in the rhyme, as it isn't.

So, I hope you managed to follow that (I tried to be vague so that it wouldn't be spoiled for new readers), and I hope you like it!

*""*

Before the Marauders and their banana incident had grabbed the attention of all the students in the class, two other equally important conversations had been happening on opposite ends of the Transfiguration room.

The first one was taking place near the front of the room, where Lily and her two best friends were busily taking notes on the best way to transfigure apples into monkeys. Unfortunately for them, none of them had a particular aptitude for Transfiguration. In fact, Lily was amazing at practically everything _but_ Transfiguration (Particularly DADA, Charms and Potions), while Alice was especially gifted in Herbology and Geeta's only outstanding class was Care of Magical Creatures. In short, the young witches had absolutely no idea which fruit to turn into what, and if they had known, they wouldn't have known what spell to cast.

So, they had settled for flipping through their Transfiguration textbooks, hoping for some sort of clue as to how to start. It was Geeta who first found something useful though, "Hey Lils, check out what I found on page 335! Could this help?"

Lily quickly turned to the aforesaid page, and then sighed, "The _Vitus Rodentia _spell? I've already written that spell down; we did it in third year, remember?"

Alice smiled as she recalled that particular lesson. They had been trying to turn grapes into mice and back again, and Lily had had the misfortune of being paired with the transfigurationally inclined James. He, naturally, had taken the opportunity to show off, and cast the spell perfectly on his third try. Instead of impressing Lily though, it aggravated her; she hated not being the best in class.

So, when he'd offered to help to turn her rodent shaped grape into a real rat, she pig headedly refused. At that point, the Marauder in James became very offended; what was this girl's _problem_? Couldn't she just let him help her and then praise him like everyone else? The Marauder in James also came up with a simple, but effective plan to humiliate her for rebuffing him.

And that was why, when Lily reached into her bag for another quill a few minutes later, she caught hold of something very squishy and furry, which was squirming to be let go. Now, even though the thirteen year old redhead had a pretty good idea of what this thing was, she lifted it up anyways to have a good look at it.

Emerald eyes met small, black, beady ones as Lily looked at the mouse. The mouse looked at Lily. She blinked, and the next thing she knew, the rodent had sunk its teeth into her hand, scampered up her arm and grabbed onto a lock of her fiery hair, swinging from it like Tarzan on a vine. Naturally, Lily let out a series of high pitched and rather loud screams, and naturally, James had watched her and laughed like a madcap.

Just then, Alice was shaken back to the present by the real Lily calling her name. "Did you hear that, Alice?"

"Not really," she answered honestly.

"Well, we decided that we'll have to meet at the library to look up some of these spells. I've managed to figure out most of the necessary ones, but we should still double check them."

Alice nodded, "Sounds good."

Geeta rolled her eyes, "No, it doesn't. Have you two forgotten that we've got a ball to attend next week?"

With a sigh, Lily explained, "No, of course I haven't, but I really don't see how that's relevant."

"You _don't see how that's relevant_?" Geeta asked, horrified, "It's the first winter ball this school's _ever had_! It's a _ball_! Lily, you're the Head Girl, shouldn't you be busy planning and decorating to make it perfect?"

"No, we've actually already assigned a separate ball committee to plan everything. In fact, they're almost done and I'll be revising it all soon." Lily replied easily. She was not one to be unprepared for anything.

Not to be deterred, Geeta plowed on, "But what about… dress robes? I haven't got a single good set of dress robes."

Lily sighed, "Madam Malkins takes orders. Just ask Mary Hopkins for her copy of the store's monthly catalogue, and owl the store your order and the money. Your dress robes will only take two days to arrive, at most."

Geeta, who was the one who had told Lily about Mary's catalogue in the first place, realized that her friend could see right through her plan. "You, er, you think that I'm just making excuses to not have to go to the library, don't you."

Lily grinned, "Oh, I'm sure of it."

The Indian girl sighed, "Why am I not surprised?"

"Anyways," Lily continued, trying to get back on topic, "The spells we still need, are the ones that turn fruit into mini lions, tigers, bears, platypuses –"

Here she was interrupted by a loud SPLAT, followed by McGonagall shouting at the Marauders for covering her in banana.

"And monkeys…" Lily concluded, watching as James and Sirius followed their professor out of the classroom. They were holding half a banana peel each.

*""*

The other conversation was far shorter than that of the girls, but possibly even more important. It took place at the far back of the classroom, and it went something like this:

"Forma Lupis. Forma Lupis. _Forma Lupis_!"

Peter jabbed his wand at his orange in vain, repeating the incantation Snape had given him to turn it into a wolf. But, aside from graying slightly, the orange remained unchanged.

"Watch it, troll head; your wolf's starting to scare me." Mulciber mocked with a sneer.

Peter bit his lip, and tried to continue undaunted. He was used to being the butt of jokes and having people make cruel jabs at him, but that didn't make it hurt less.

"God, Pettigrew, you're like a squib. It's no wonder you're always hiding behind the _Golden ones_."

Peter was too afraid of the daunting Slytherin to make a comeback, so he just kept on silently working at his orange. True, Sirius and even James had called him a squib before, but they'd never truly meant it, had they? And they _had_ stopped near the end of fifth year.

Snape, who had always had the uncanny ability to foresee trouble, finally decided that there was nothing to be gained by being cruel to the mousy boy, and everything to be lost.

Ever since he had muddled up the Mudblood potion, he had been looking for revenge. Being a master of manipulation, he had started by identifying the weak link in Potter's perfect world. It was Peter. Peter was the only Marauder who didn't have any confidence, and who didn't feel worthy of his friends. He didn't belong, and he knew it. So, Snape figured that breaking the Marauders was only a matter of convincing the weak willed boy that he was on the wrong side, and turning him against the others.

So, with this in mind, he coolly said, "Oh quiet, Mulciber. You've hardly made any more progress with your watermelon than he has with the orange."

The other Slytherin turned to glare at him with surprise and fury, but Snape shot him a significant look. Mulciber, who could be just as coniving as his greasy haired friend, quickly caught on. "I suppose you're right, Snape. Besides, it's not Peter's fault."

"It's not?"

"Of course not, Pettigrew! All you need to do is wave your wand a little higher."

Peter tried it, and with only a little interference from Snape, he managed to transform the bright fruit into a tiny, beautiful wolf.

"Well done, Peter." Snape said with a false smile.

"Yeah, that's how it's done." Mulciber rejoined. "I _knew_ that you had it in you."

Peter gave an unsure smile, "Really?"

"Of course." The Slytherin said, patting Peter on his back, "You're a pureblood."

The plump boy smiled, feeling accepted, "Yeah… I am aren't I?"

For the first time Snape smiled a true, albeit malicious smile, "Yes, you certainly are."


	6. Preparations

The days immediately preceding the ball proved completely uneventful. NEWT work had started piling up, and all of the seventh years found themselves struggling to keep up. Even the Marauders had taken to studying; Peter was often in the Common room cramming as much as he could, James tutored Lily in Transfiguration while she tried to improve his dreadful Potion skills, Sirius started helping Rebecca, his less than brilliant Hufflepuff girlfriend, figure out which end of the textbook was up, and Remus was left to study with Geeta in relative peace.

Unfortunately, even though they were always with each other, none of the couples managed to find any time to just _be_ together, and this started to bother James.

He and Lily hadn't had a good snog for weeks, and though he'd spent plenty of time with her, she was always busy stressing about exams and he, about Sirius. James felt that they just couldn't joke around and love each other anymore; they weren't in the mood. So, both James and Lily were looking forward to the Winter ball and a bit of together time with an almost abnormal earnest.

On the day of the ball, all afternoon classes were called off, to give students (well, only the witches, really…), time to prepare.

When the Marauders reached their dorm room after lunch, it was filled with an atypical silence. The room which normally knew shouting, laugher, teasing, secret meetings and fierce friendship was now forced to be a place of complete unease.

Thankfully, Sirius quickly changed into his robes then left, thus preventing any possible conflict between him and James. Still, the common room remained quiet.

Remus was thinking about Geeta, and spending the entire evening with her, and James' thoughts were in the same vein, but about Lily. Peter also had a date with a girl whom Sirius had convinced to go with him. With his good looks and charm, Sirius had always managed to find dates for his friend, and tonight was no different. Usually, Sirius would also insist on all of the Marauders leaving the common room together. He considered the other three his brothers, much more so than Regulus, and he cherished them more than he had ever been able to admit.

Of course, ever since Lily and Geeta had grabbed holds on his friends' hearts, Sirius had been afraid of losing them. If they abandoned him, he'd have no one left.

Sirius's own family had abandoned him long ago. The worst day he'd spent with them had been the day he'd run away, though he suspected he'd have had to suffer even worse had he stayed.

That day had been the day when Sirius's brother had told their mother about Remus's condition. Regulus had always been bright, so when he'd figured out that Remus was a werewolf, he'd decided to use that information to blackmail Sirius. After all, befriending half bloods was one thing, but a Black being best friends with filthy half_ breed _was utterly unacceptable.

So, for the first week of the summer Sirius had done whatever it took to keep his brother quiet. He'd helped him with his homework, given him his broom, filched potions from their father's private store, heck, he'd even gotten a girl for the rat. But one day Regulus wanted more. Reg wanted him to agree to become a Death Eater. He'd wanted Sirius to go into their parent's study and declare his love for the Dark Lord.

"Go on," he'd said, "This is the last thing I need you to do for me. Just come to our side again, make mother and father proud and I'll forget all about that _animal_ you call a friend."

Sirius glared, "Remus isn't an _animal_; he's more of a person than you'll ever be. As for telling our dear parents that I love _Voldemort_, (Here Regulus cringed) I can't. _You know_ I can't. I refuse to become a brain washed, cold blooded murderer."

Regulus looked at his brother as if he were crazy, "Death Eaters aren't _murders_; muggles, mudbloods and half breeds aren't _true_ people, so killing them is no more murdering than uprooting weeds from a garden. We are simply trying to _purify _our race."

Sirius didn't know whether to be shocked or disgusted.

_That's your brother…_ he'd thought with horror, _your brother actually believes all of that Death Eater propaganda. He'll be a killer._

"You _can't_ mean that, Reg." Sirius had whispered. He didn't want to accept what his brother had become.

"_Of course_ I do. If you want to be a blood traitor, then that's your problem. _I_ choose to remain loyal to our lord."

Up until that point, a part of Sirius had still believed that one day, his family would understand and love him. He'd believed that Regulus was only pretending to be cruel to please their parents. But that day, he'd finally realized that he'd never fit in with the people he called family.

Still in a state of shock, Sirius had said the only possible thing to his brother, "Then get _the hell_ away from me." And he'd run up to his room.

It wasn't long before he'd heard the knocking at his door, then his mother's shrill voice, "Sirius, come out _now;_ we need to talk."

Even though he had known full well that there would be hell to pay, Sirius hadn't moved. He was not about to get up and beg his parents forgiveness for having Remus as a best friend and not wanting to become a Death Eater.

"Sirius, we know about your filthy little half breed _friend_. If you don't open this door, we'll make things even worse for you than we did _last time_."

Sirius had remained sitting on his ornate bed, defiant. Last time, his dear old mother had used the Cruciatus curse on him. He didn't think it was possible for her to do any worse.

"That's it! We're coming in."

Sirius watched stoically as his mother burst the door open, and then she and her husband had taken turns raising their wands, screaming the unforgivable, and watching their eldest son fall and writhe on the floor with pain. Sirius had tried to keep his mouth shut, he had almost bit through his tongue with the effort, to not give his parents the satisfaction of hearing him scream. But everyone has a breaking point. When Sirius had reached his, his screams of agony had echoed through the house, all the way to Regulus's room where the boy crawled into a ball and shivered.

That very night Sirius had packed up his things and left for James', hoping never to have to return to Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

For some reason, it was this horrible memory that chose to manifest itself in Sirius's head as he headed briskly down to the Great Hall. But when he reached the doors he shook his head of all thoughts but the task at hand. This prank would take some concentration.

*""*

"Are you sure about this?" Lily asked nervously. It was getting late and she was sitting on the edge of her bed, already dressed and, in her opinion, perfectly ready to attend the ball.

Unfortunately, when Geeta and Alice had discovered that she had been planning on going to the ball in her favorite set of black, ankle length dress robes, they had decided that she was in dire need of their help.

So, Lily was now being forced to wait and sit still as the other two girls dug through their and her trunks, searching for a more suitable article of clothing. Occasionally one of them would fling a dress at her over their shoulders for consideration, but so far everything they had shown her seemed to flashy and almost gaudy for her taste. Although, she would never have told them that.

"Ugh, Lily! Why do you have to be so picky!" Geeta groaned as her redheaded friend rejected another sparkly blue number.

Lily, who by now had gotten out a book and was attempting to read while ducking a fluffy pink boa thrown at her by Alice, shrugged, "I guess I'm just very… conservative when it comes to clothing."

That comment succeeded in getting Geeta's head out of her trunk, "You're _what_?"

"Er, nothing. It's a muggle term for reserved and old fashioned."

Slightly amused, Lily pretended not to hear when Geeta muttered, "And _boring_" under her breath.

Sighing, Alice too looked up at Lily, and she almost laughed when she saw the mess she had helped create; Lily and her bed could barely be seen beneath a mountain of robes and dresses.

Taking a break from her book, Lily also noticed all of the clothes and raised an eyebrow, "Seeing as this is a boarding school with uniforms…" she started, "why in Merlin's name do you two have all of these clothes?"

"Er… that's irrelevant." Alice said, hastily changing the subject, "Now, have you chosen anything?"

"Well, yes. I –"

"Good. Put it on." Geeta said impatiently. "Now Alice, how does that hair curling spell go again?"

It wasn't until half an hour later that Geeta, Alice and Lily deemed themselves ready for the ball. In that time, they succeeded in making their dorm look as if they'd had cast their own private tornado to destroy it, and themselves look more beautiful than they'd ever looked before.

*""*

Alright, due to exams, this story is on hold until further notice. Why? Because I've gotta actually study this time... high school's a real pain ;]

I swear, the second my last exam is over, I'm gonna eat a pint of ice cream, re-read the entire Harry Potter series, and watch every Monty Python video ever uploaded onto YouTube.

Oh, and I'll probably continue this story as well =]


	7. The Ball

To make up for my haitus, and for the fact that I'll be on vacation and unable to write next month, I've done something I've NEVER done before; DOUBLE POST!

*""*

Eight o'clock. The Great Hall's grand doors would open at exactly eight o'clock to admit the anxiously waiting young witches and wizards into what would be – for most of them – their first ever formal ball.

Sure, all of them had attended wild dorm parties and impromptu end of exam bashes, but a ball was something of a much different nature. It was the sort of thing that sent young witches' minds back into the many romance novels they had read when no one was looking. Single girls dressed their best and dreamed of finding an unexpected Prince Charming at the ball, and others fantasized about having a perfect, magical night with their loved ones, whom they expected would stop acting like hormonal teenage boys, and more like knights in shining armor.

As for Lily, she knew perfectly well that her boyfriend was no Romeo, Mr. Rochester or Mr. Darcy. He was arrogant, lazy, had little regard for the rules and was as stubborn as a manticore. But, there was no one in the world she enjoyed being with more, and as she waited with her friends for the doors to open, she scanned the crown anxiously, trying to spot his messy black locks in a sea of heads. When she couldn't spot him, Lily felt her stomach start to clench up with unexpected nerves.

_Where is he? What's taking him so long?_

She craned her neck even further.

_Oh, what was I thinking, getting so excited for this; he's a __guy__. They __hate__ balls and romance and all that. _

She gave a tiny hop in her high heels, hoping to catch a glimpse of her date. No dice.

_Well, what was I expecting, that he'd ride up on a white horse, sweep me off my feet and we'd ride off into the sunset to the sound of our best mates singing a ballad with Dumbledore and the house elves? _

_Of __course__ he's late. He's probably just dreading dancing with you. Wait… you don't know how to dance, do you? DO YOU? _

_Oh, you'll make a complete __fool__ of yourself; you know how clumsy you are. And he's been attending balls and wizard socials for years; he's probably an expert! An EXPERT I say! You should just run away to Moaning Murtle's bathroom and cry with her in the stalls while you still can! RUN! _

Then: "Lils! I'm so glad I finally found you…" The voice called her loudly over the buzz of the other student's chatter, but despite the noise, Lily felt that she could hear him perfectly.

_Holy Hippogriff, I know that voice! He's… somewhere behind me._

Lily quickly spun around to find him, but in her haste, she forgot that she was wearing a pair of Geeta's strappy heels. She promptly tripped and began falling, arms flailing ungracefully in an attempt to catch her balance. Now, normally, this would be fine, except she was in a crowded hall with minimal room for any movement. In fact, Lily was completely boxed in by other people, so she didn't have room to fall.

Instead, she was slammed onto someone's front, her face making contact with a tie. As she blushed at her clumsiness, muttered an apology to the person, and tried to regain her footing, she felt his arms snake around her waist.

_How__ impertinent. _

Deciding that she had to be blunt, she tried to push herself away, "Er, excuse me; I have to go meet my boyfriend."

Instead of letting her go, the person let out a low chuckle. And for some reason, this didn't bother Lily. Probably because the person was starting to smell and sound very familiar…

"Hello beautiful."

His voice finally confirming her suspicions, Lily slowly looked up and met the mirthful hazel eyes of James Potter.

_Diddle. Well, I suppose there __are__ worse ways the evening could have started. I mean, sure, you embarrassed yourself completely, but at lease he showed up, right?_

Lily bit her lip, got off of James' chest and looked at her shoes. "That… wasn't supposed to happen", she spoke in a voice that was barely audibly in the bustling crowd.

But James only laughed at her; Lily was the biggest perfectionist he knew, and it never ceased to amuse him how hard she tried to never let anyone see her mess up.

"I know that; it's _setting a bad example_", he said with a grin.

When she gave him a tiny smile, James continued, "Here's what _should _have happened. I should have entered the hall, and been blind to every person but you. Then, as I slowly walked towards you, the crowd _should_ have parted, making a wide path for us (perhaps with a spotlight on you too). When I finally reached you, I would be struck dumb by your enchanting beauty, and after a while of me just admiring you while you wondered why I wasn't moving, I would drop on one knee, propose, and we'd disappear into the sunset."

Lily grinned, "You forgot the white horse and house elf choir"

"The _what_?"

"Er, nevermind."

James had been about to inform his girlfriend that for all her talk about setting good examples, she was just as crazy as he was, when the Great Hall's doors finally began to swing open, revealing the newly decorated wonder inside.

As the students entered the hall, Lily couldn't help but look around in awe, and think that the elves had outdone themselves this time. The colour scheme was silver and gold, and about five massive chandeliers of these colours swirled around in the night sky ceiling. The long tables had been draped in glimmering tablecloths, and were arranged along the outside of the room, leaving the center as a massive dance floor for the teens. Still, the room didn't seem empty and stony as Lily had been expected; the grey walls had been softened with silver and gold draperies of a thin gauze which fluttered with a magical breeze, and the floor itself had been covered in a velvety carpet with the most intricate and beautiful pattern she had ever seen.

And then the lights dimmed and the music started. Not a waltz, as Lily had half expected, but a popular number which had swept the school called, "No Way". And, to Lily's relief, most of the 'dancing' was nothing more than swaying and bopping to the beat, and having a good time.

Geeta and Remus soon joined them, along with Alice and Peter, and they danced the night away together. Only Sirius was absent, presumably snogging some girl's brains out. It was only Remus who knew better. He knew that by now, Sirius had probably finished setting up Operation Big Bang, and was patiently waiting for the ball's end.

*""*

Thanks so much for reading!


	8. The Big Bang

Finally, it was almost midnight. The final song (Gotta Get Back to Hogwarts) was starting, and everyone had finally began to tire out. Remus was especially tired, as he had rushed back and forth between helping Sirius with some of the enchantments on the hall and dancing his heart out with Geeta all night. If Geeta noticed his slightly haggard appearance, though, she didn't mention it, for which Remus was very grateful.

As for James and Lily, he decided that it was finally time to pull her back into a quieter corner of the hall and spend some time with her. So, he silently took her hand and pulled her from the dance floor to sit at the now deserted tables.

When they sat down, James looked up and just admired her for a moment. She was wearing a floaty emerald dress, which hugged her small frame and complemented her perfect almond eyes. Her deep red hair had been curled and arranged in a messy but elegant knot on the back of her head, and she was wearing the faintest trace of makeup. Lily looked like a princess from the most beautiful of fairy tales.

Finally, unable to take the silence, Lily burst into a fit of giggles, "James? Are you still in there?"

James grinned, "Naw, James left hours ago. You bore him, you see. I'm just filling in."

Lily raised an eyebrow questioningly, "I bore him, do I?"

"Absolutely," James replied happily, "He's not really into the stick in the mud type."

Then James noticed a drastic and almost frightening change in Lily. She shifted so that they were sitting closer beside each other, sides touching. Next she turned and slowly slid her hand up his back to the nape of his neck, snaking around it. Her other hand placed itself on his knee, and she leaned in so that her lips brushed his ear when she whispered, "So I'm a stick in the mud am I?"

It was the most seductive her voice had ever been, and James almost shivered.

_So that's how she want's to play, eh? Alright then..._

Turning to face her, he let his hand fall to stroke her thigh and he winked, Sirius style, "Prove me wrong, love."

Instantly, Lily's suave act evaporated, "James!"

He laughed, and they detangled themselves, both blushing profusely. It was James who finally broke the silence after that, knowing that he was running out of time. "Er Lily, I, er, got you something."

"Oh, you didn't have to do that!" Lily looked stricken, "I didn't get you anything."

James almost rolled his eyes, "I know that, and don't worry. This gift didn't cost me a thing."

"Well, what is it?" Lily asked impatiently. James couldn't help but love the look of excitement and curiosity in her eyes.

So, without wasting another moment, he muttered the incantation he'd been practicing with Professor Sprout for weeks. And it worked perfectly; the minute he spoke, a green vine erupted from the tip of his wand, growing longer by the second. With another incantation, it stopped growing and tied itself into a loop. Then, a series of delicate and tiny buds formed on the vine, and they bloomed simultaneously into a beautiful wreath of fresh pink roses. Their fragrance was heaven.

Still not speaking, James placed the wreath lightly on Lily's hair, making her look more fairylike and ethereal than ever.

Finally, she spoke. "That was _beautiful_ magic, James. Thank you."

James opened his mouth to reply, but Lily hadn't finished, "But James," she hesitated, looking unsure if she should continue, "don't they clash with my hair?"

He merely smiled softly and cupped her face with his hands, "Lily, you look beautiful."

"And you have no taste" she said, rolling her eyes.

"Obviously," James whispered, still looking at her lovingly, "I chose you."

Lily laughed, then she leaned in to give James a kiss… but right before their mouths met –

BANG!

AAAH!

_KABOOM_!

To everyone's shock, the Great Hall had suddenly _exploded_. Or at least, that was how it seemed.

In reality, it was just a well planned and well timed series of fireworks and lights, spread throughout the room. And there was madness.

Colourful sparks flew off of all the walls and filled the air, making it hard to see much farther than your own nose when they didn't blind you. The chandeliers also rained down flickers of colour, which ignited and burst into clouds of glimmering smoke when they made contact with the students. There were also golden Catharine wheels which whizzed through the air, barely missing the young witch and wizard's heads, and then there were proper fireworks which exploded overhead whenever things seemed to get a bit too dull.

Finally, after all of the smoke had cleared and once the students had stopped their shrieking, one final firework rose up from the centre of the dance floor. It was iridescent blue, and rose to the highest point in the room, floating there for a moment. It seemed to wait until all eyes were on it, before exploding with a loud _CRACK_! and splattering about a ton of shiny blue goop onto one very unlucky student.

Her name, was Lily Jane Evans.

*''*

Now, Hogwarts students were generally a very nice group of people. But they tended to have very juvenile senses of humor, so when the perfect Lily Evans ended up covered in a disgusting looking blue liquid, ruining her hair and making her make up run clownishly, they did the only natural thing they could do; they fell over laughing hysterically, some even pointing.

Besides, by seventh year they had become very accustomed to the Marauder's pranks; making fun of people was second nature to them. But, to tell the truth, only a few students were _really_ laughing at Lily. Most were simply laughing from shock at the sparks and from how taken by surprise they'd been.

Unfortunately, Lily didn't understand this. What she did understand, was that she had to get out of the Great Hall, and _fast_. So, she bolted towards her dorm, with more agility than she'd ever have managed in Geeta's strappy heels otherwise.

*''*

Yes! Success!

There was almost nothing in the world that Sirius liked better than a good prank, and this one had run like clockwork. So, instead of feeling guilty for his grand finale, he was laughing jubilantly while being clapped on the back and high fived for the wonderful display of fireworks he had choreographed.

"Ah! You almost gave me a heart attack, you dog!" his date cried at him, "But, I have to admit that it _was_ nice of you to do that for me."

Sirius grinned, choosing not to tell the chit that the prank had nothing to do with her. Instead, he took the opportunity to lean in and snog her senseless.

It had been a pretty decent snog too, before something hit Sirius rather hard in the back of the head. Feeling that he had a good idea who had hit him, Sirius detangled himself from his girl and turned around, "Well, look who it is, the ex-Marauder."

James glared at him, "What the _hell_ were you thinking? How could you?"

Sirius gazed at his friend coolly, "_I_ happen to have a sense of humor, Mr. _Head Boy_. Besides," here Sirius paused, "What makes you think I did this? You have no proof."

James closed his eyes; that was an excuse that he and Sirius had always used together. He couldn't believe it was now being used against him.

"Sirius, I…never mind. Forget it."

He turned around to leave, but then turned back to glare at his friend one last time, "You know what Sirius, I didn't think that I could ever hate you. But I do. You've finally lived up to your _diddle_ family name, you're _just like _them. All you can do is hurt people."

And James stalked off, to spend his last night at Hogwarts before the holls comforting Lily.


	9. Almost Miserable

Alright, I'll try to update at least once more before I leave for vacation, then I'll be off for the entire month of August. Cheers =]

*""*

It was the fifth day of the winter holidays, but to James, it felt as if it had been much longer than that. He just couldn't seem to get over how empty his house felt; how quiet and lonely.

Sure, he had his parents, but without Sirius to joke around with and cause daily chaos, home just didn't seem complete anymore. Sirius had always been as much a part of James' holidays as the presents, snow and coacoa. Still, Sirius's absence was only half of the reason why James felt so miserable.

See, while on the train back to King's Cross, Lily had begged James to write to her as often as he could, saying that she would likely not be able to make it through the holidays if he didn't. So, now that it had been five days and he'd sent three letters, with no response, James had started to worry about her. His worry, along with a healthy dose of simply missing her, made him more depressed than he'd been for a long time.

Finally, on the seventh day, James decided to go down to his father's study, and talk to him. He'd been avoiding doing so ever since he got back, because he hadn't wanted to tell his parents about his fight with Sirius and they'd likely question him about his friend's absence when he did talk to them.

Moreover, around Halloween James had owled them to let them know that he'd finally gotten the girl of his dreams. So naturally, Mr. and Mrs. Potter had been expecting their son to spend the break gushing about her jubilantly. But that couldn't be any farther from the truth.

Yes, James' sullen behavior was completely baffling to them both, but the boy refused to talk. Until that seventh day.

When James walked into his father's study, and sat down in the chair opposite his desk, Mr. Potter inwardly grinned; James would only sit there when he really needed his father's advice or company. Or, if he wanted money… Still, James's father was pretty sure that his son had finally decided to open up about what had happened between him and his best friend, and he prepared himself to be the perfect, comforting and reasonably cool father his son had always told him he was.

Looking up from his work, he met his son's eyes, "Yes, James? What can I help you with?"

James swallowed, "Dad, could you please…" James paused, then spoke quickly without making eye contact with his father, "use your influence at the Ministry to add a muggle house to the floo network for a day?"

Mr Potter blinked; this was not what he'd been expecting. But, he quickly regained his composure, "Er, _perhaps_ I could, but I'd need a _very_ good reason to do so. Do you have one?"

With a nod, his son looked back up at him and elaborated, "Yes, I have the _best_ of reasons. See, I've been owling Lily every second day for the past few days, and she hasn't replied once. I'm worried; I need to see if she's alright."

Mr. Potter struggled to hold in a chuckle, "And, it's only been a week?"

"Dad!" James cried, realizing that his father didn't properly comprehend the gravity of the situation, "This is _Lily_ I'm talking about! The punctual, proper, perfect girl who made me _promise_ to write _daily_ on the train."

James' paranoid tone made Mr. Potter realize that talking him out of his panic would be a Herculean task, which he really didn't have time for. So, he said, "Well… why don't you simply _apparate_ to her house?"

Here, James blushed, "I, er, I can't apparate properly unless I've already been to the place I'm going. I've, well, tried apparating to Lily's before, and it didn't' work. But I really _need _to check on her."

At that, Mr. Potter sighed; his son had probably been trying desperately to apparate to Lily for the past few days. "I'm sure you do, James. And as for the aparating problem, don't worry, it comes with experience."

The boy hardly seemed to be listening, "But will you do it, dad?" His wide hazel eyes (his mother's eyes) looked at Mr. Potter imploringly, so he said the only possible thing, "Well… if you absolutely _need_ me to bend an important wizarding law for your whim, you're going to have to wait until about three o'clock, James. The floo network office doesn't open until noon during the holidays, and it's going to take a lot of convincing to make them add an unknown, _unmagical_ address to the network."

And James grinned, getting up to prepare, "Thanks dad! You're the greatest, most amazing, most…_beautiful_ wizard I've ever met!"

"And you, dear boy, are the barmiest."

*""*

Sirius hated himself. He was such a _git;_ James was completely right about him always hurting people.

Then again, he wasn't. After all, if James hadn't completely ignored him and paid the least bit of attention to his so called "best friend", then Sirius wouldn't have had to resort to desperate measures.

Still, he shouldn't have taken it out on Lily; this wasn't really _her_ fault. The blue goop should have landed on James' fat nest of hair instead. Why had his first impulse been to get Lily? That was just _wrong_. Perhaps… James was right after all.

But, _no_ he wasn't… Sirius could never be like his family. He would never be that cruel.

Then again, he _had_ been cruel to Lily, very cruel indeed…

And it began again. This never ending cycle of thoughts rolled around and around in Sirius' head as he silently ate lunch in the Great Hall. His unhelpful thoughts, which drifted back and forth from his family, to James, to doubting his own personality, were the only company he'd had for the past few days, and Sirius was starting to wonder if he'd go mad like this. After all, he, Snivelous, and a handful of first years were pretty much the only students who'd decided to stay at the castle for the holidays, and as Snape spent all of his times lurking about the dungeons, Sirius practically had the place to himself.

It was so lonely, in fact, that a solitary house elf had to come and wait upon him; there was no point in having the great feast served for a handful of students. As for the Professors, they kept mostly to themselves as well, dining in their own holiday lounge. Most student's never discovered the place, but that didn't mean that the Marauders hadn't managed to get it on their map.

Finally, on the fourth day, something happened which snapped Sirius from his funk like nothing else had been able to do.

He had been walking through the lonely halls, making his way down to breakfast, when he caught sight of a girl quickly crossing the hallway which intersected his ahead. Well, technically, he hadn't really seen her, he'd just got a glimpse of long golden hair and seen the swish of her robes, and she was gone.

But, that brief sighting was enough to pique Sirius' interest. After all, from her height and stature, Sirius figured that the girl was around his age, and she was likely very pretty... moreover, he was curious as to why he hadn't seen her earlier. There were so few students still at the castle that Sirius had been relatively certain that he'd seen them all.

So, naturally, Sirius pulled the Marauders map from his back pocket, and looked around for the girl's dot. She couldn't have gotten too far…

Aha! There. One solitary girl was making her way up to the clock tower, and her name, was Heather Mallory.

*""*

Sirius had never liked the stairs to the clock tower. They were wooden and squeaky, and every hour, when the school's giant clock clanged the hour, the stairs vibrated in a way that made it almost impossible to climb them and maintain his smooth demeanor at the same time.

At the moment, however, the most annoying attribute of the stairs was their squeakiness, for Sirius was trying to climb them without alerting the girl who was waiting at the top. Thank _goodness_ for the silencing spell.

When Sirius turned the last corner of the stairs, he was able to get a good view of the girl he'd been pursuing's profile. She was standing by a window, underneath the many gears and cogs which made the school's clock work, and gazing out with large, dreamy brown eyes. Her long hair, which was an uncommon shade of pure gold, was pinned back, revealing her oval face as well as her Slytherin green tie.

And suddenly, he remembered her. Heather Mallory was the quiet Slytherin who didn't talk whenever it could be helped. She was in the same year as him, but took few of the same classes. Moreover, she was very good at making herself invisible, so no one, including Sirius, had noticed when she'd gone from an awkward little girl to a beautiful, albeit self conscious, young woman.

Sirius had just reached this conclusion, when the fair haired beauty felt that prickling sensation one got when they were being spied on. She almost jumped like a frightened deer, and looked at Sirius with impossibly wide eyes. She looked shocked, and almost frightened, which Sirius hadn't expected.

Still, being Sirius Black, he did _not _blush, apologize and run as far away as possible; that was what other boys did.

Nope, Sirius Black merely gave her a debonair half grin, "Ah, so you _are_ real, love. For a moment there, I thought I was dreaming."

Heather's expression didn't change. Instead of blushing, looking away shyly, giving him a snippy reply, or anything Sirius was used to, she just continued to look at him with wide, petrified eyes.

_Aw come on, girl, how shy can you get? That line was pure gold!_

_Ah well, it's time for a change of tactics; this girl's no Geeta or Lily…_

When the girl still didn't move, Sirius shook his head and gave her an honest friendly grin, "You know what, disregard what I just said, I didn't mean to startle you. It's just that I didn't know that there were any other seventh years still here, and I was pretty surprised when I saw you. It's Heather, isn't it?"

She nodded, "Yes, I'm Heather."

"Well then, it is a pleasure to _finally_ meet you properly, Miss Heather," Sirius said in his most charming voice, holding out his hand to shake hers, "I'm Sirius Black."

Shyly taking his hand, but shaking it firmly, Heather smiled, "I know."

_Finally: progress. _

"Now, Miss Heather, I was just on my way down to the Great Hall for some breakfast, would you care to accompany me?" Here, Sirius offered her his arm like a suitor from the 1800's.

But Heather hesitated, "I… don't think I should."

Sirius pretended to look affronted at this, "What do you mean, of _course_ you should! How can you turn down a polite offer like this, it's… it's…blasphemy! Especially since you're turning down _breakfast_. Who refuses a _breakfast_ invitation; it's _breakfast! _You simply _can't_ miss the most important meal of the day! You… you _must_ accompany me, or the balance of the _entire universe_ will be thrown off!"

Sirius concluded with a decisive nod, and Heather giggled, trying to cover her tinkling laughter with her hand in a way that Sirius found adorable.

So, she took his arm, and the two of them happily meandered down to the Great Hall for breakfast. And while they seemed to get along perfectly, their compatibility came as a great shock to both of them; Heather was simply surprised that the most handsome wizard at Hogwarts had noticed her, and Sirius was still unable to believe that he'd found a way to keep his mind off the fact that he'd lost his best friend.


	10. Taxi's and Laughing

Alright, by the time you read this, I'll be on a plane, heading to my first ever vacation in Europe! So, I'll see you guys in September!

*""*

When James arrived at Lily's house, he was shocked to find that there was a thick pane of glass barring his way to the living room. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, but when James had arrived in the fireplace, he'd lost his balance and his nose had slammed straight into the glass with a rather unsettling _crack_.

_Diddle. At least Lily's really good at those healing spells. __But, for the time being..._

With a groan, James peeled himself off of the glass and conjured up a handkerchief to press to his nose and stop the bleeding. Then he stepped back and vanished the glass in the grate. It wasn't until he entered the living room, though, that he realized that he'd make a big mistake; the house was completely empty. The lights were off, the windows were closed and locked, and it was almost completely silent.

Swearing quietly, James cast a quick _lumos_ and looked around for some clue that would tell him where his girlfriend was. Then, he heard a soft hooting coming from directly above him.

The noise was faint, but clear, and James began to creep around the surprisingly large house in search of the stairs to the upper floor. For some reason he found it necessary to be completely silent, though no one would have heard him even if he'd decided to stomp around while belting Celestina Warback. There was just something about being in the girl of his dream's empty house that made James feel almost reverent.

Lily had grown up here. Her earliest memories were probably of this spacious kitchen, of that painting of the sea on the landing, or perhaps of that cream leather sofa. The house was also crammed with books, which James found as no surprise. The entire Evans Clan was probably full of bookworms like Lily; it was a houseful of people who curled up in scattered corners and devoured books, and then spent mealtimes discussing them to each other with the same excitement that Dumbledore radiated on September first… James smiled.

It was while thinking this, that James realized something; he knew absolutely nothing about Lily's family.

Well, he knew that she lived with her parents, whom she adored, and older sister named Petunia, but that was it. In fact, he'd been dating Lily for two months, and she hadn't mentioned her sister once. How had he not noticed this before?

As James walked along the upper floor hallway, the hooting got steadily louder. Finally, he located the room from which it emitted, and gently pushed the door open.

This was Lily's room. And it somehow seemed to exude Lily's personality just as well as she did; it had pale green walls and it was a bit of a mess that was trying it's very best to appear neat and organized.

James had been about to fully explore it to learn all he could, when he remembered that he didn't exactly have all the time in the world. He was breaking and entering, and moreover, he had to find Lily and make sure that she hadn't been found by Death Eaters targeting muggleborns first… or worse.

Horrible scenarios played themselves out in James' head, and he was soon so lost in thought that he almost jumped onto Lily's bed when the owl on her nightstand let out a very loud shriek.

Turning to face it, he recognized it as Merlin, Lily's own owl. But… why was he in his cage? Peering closer, James saw that a pile of unopened envelopes was also on the nightstand. Three of them, James noticed, were addressed in his own hand and untouched. Actually it looked as if Lily hadn't bothered replying to _any _of her mail; her owl looked utterly miserable from the lack of exercise.

As he gazed around, James realized with a jolt that Lily's entire room looked untouched. It was as if she hadn't come here for the holidays at all…

Just then, James noticed that that day's date had something very large scrawled across it on the calendar hung above Lily's bed; "Engagement party 4:00. 77 Starfield Drive"

_Thank MERLIN that Lily's so abnormally organized!_

Checking his watch, James saw that it was exactly 3:55. So, if he could find this… _Starfield_ place, he'd find Lily, and that was a very comforting thought.

Unfortunately, he had _no_ idea where on Earth the place was.

_Now what?_

James sighed, and for a brief millisecond, he contemplated apparating home. Then, another, much louder, voice in his head cut in:

_What d'you mean 'now what?' Pull yourself together man! You're James Potter; you can't just give up! You know where she is, now __go and get her__!_

Swallowing, James realized that the strange voice in his head (which sounded rather like Sirius_…_) spoke the truth.

There was nothing for it; he would just have to put what he'd learned back in third year Muggle Studies to use. So what if he'd never actually been to the muggle world before, how hard could it be? He'd just go outside, and shout as loud as was physically possible while jumping up and down and waving his arms above his head like a maniac, to attract the attention of a taxzee. From what he remembered, taxzee's were ugly cars which took you where you wanted to go whenever you wanted to get there; how convenient was that?

He could do this. He could _totally_ do this. No. problem.

_Aw sweet diddle, I'm __done for__…_

*""*

"So, you like Herbology, huh? That's… nice."

"Oh, _don't_. I know that Herbology's not the most exciting class, but I just love taking tiny seeds, little buds, and helping them grow into something beautiful. I even like _muggle_ gardening."

"I see."

Heather sighed at her companion. They were now well into the second week of vacation, and the two of them had been spending almost every waking moment with each other; they'd become good friends. At the moment, though, their interest in each other could have been greater. That was because they were both hanging out in one of the spare greenhouses, and she was showing him her prized collection of plants and flowers. He, for his part, was lounging around on a bench, and pretending to look utterly bored.

"Alright, Sirius, you tell me what _your_ favourite class us then."

The dark haired boy shrugged casually, "Actually, I don't really think I spend enough time in any of my classes to _have_ a favourite."

Placing her hands on her hips, Heather turned to roll her eyes at Sirius, "I'm _serious_! Pick a class."

Sirius chuckled, "First off… _I'm_ Sirius; you're Heather. Second, I think if I were totally honest, my favourite class would be… Charms."

Heathers' brown eyes widened with surprise, "Really?"

"Yup." Sirius grinned at her, "The great Sirius Black's favourite class is not the mighty DADA, but the lowly Charms. Odd isn't it?"

Heather shook her head, "No, it's not that, it's just… I could _really_ use some help with Charms, I'm absolute _rubbish_ at it. Could you tutor me, maybe?"

Sirius inwardly jumped for joy, "Of _course_ I will assist you! Have you ever known a brave knight in shining armour like me to refuse assisting a damsel in distress? _Especially_ as fetching a damsel as yourself?"

Heather smiled, but shook her head at him, "You're _hilarious_, Sirius." Then she went back to her potting.

_I wasn't joking._

Getting up, Sirius walked towards her, "Heather?"

She turned to face him, with a tiny pot of vines still in her hand, "What?"

"You really are beautiful, you know."

Heather stiffened, "Right. Now, could you hold onto this for a moment?"

She held out the pot of tiny, writhing, pale green vines for him to hold, and Sirius reluctantly took it. As Heather turned back to get some fertilizer for the plants, Sirius idly held out his finger for the vines to wind around, puzzling over her.

She was gorgeous, but for some reason, she was convinced that she was nothing special. Even more worryingly, she looked almost _frightened_ whenever he made any advances that were more than friendly, as if she didn't want a snog from _the_ Sirius Black. Which was, of course, completely absurd.

All of a sudden, Sirius became aware of a sharp pain in his finger. He looked down and saw with horror that one of the vines had encircled his finger, holding it steady, and the other vines were stabbing it with surprisingly sharp tips.

"Heather… _HEATHER_! Your plant is _killing_ me! Help! _HELP_! I'm too _hot_ to _DIEEEEEE_!"

She ran over, laughing, and took the plant from him with ease. Then, to Sirius' chagrin, she merely put the pot down, and continued laughing. Heather, apparently, was the sort of person who had laughing fits. Which meant that once she started laughing hard, it took her quite a while to stop.

So, after pouting pointedly at her and getting no response, Sirius gave in and laughed with her, finding that he inexplicably loved watching her mirth. And whenever she showed any signs of stopping, he lightly tickled her neck and set her off again.

"Sirius, stop- oh! I- _mean- _it, I really… _Sirius_!"

Inevitably, she started tickling him back, and soon they were chasing each other around the greenhouse, feeling better than either of them had in months.

Finally, Sirius let Heather catch him, but then he slyly turned around and caught _her_ around the waist. By this time, both of them were breathing heavily from all their laughter, but the mood in the greenhouse had suddenly changed. The laughter was gone, and all Heather could think about was how _right_ it felt to be wrapped in Sirius' arms. And how wonderful it was to be pressed up against him…

Then Sirius looked deeply into her doe eyes, trying to read them and see why she hadn't pushed him away, as she usually did, yet. And in those eyes he saw her usual hesitance to his advances, but today there was no conviction there. After that he couldn't help it; he let his gaze flicker down to her strawberry lips, still panting softly.

"Heather?"

"Yeah?" she breathed softly.

"Would you mind terribly if I kissed you?"

Her eyes locked on his, "Why?"

"Because there's _nothing_ in the in the world I'd like to do more."

Heather didn't speak, but her eyes fell to Sirius' mouth, and that was all the invitation he needed. He leaned in to close the gap between them, and was amazed at how soft and sweet her mouth was. He kissed her gently, more tenderly than he had kissed anyone in a long time, and she responded in the same way. Sirius could almost _taste _the affection radiating from her breath.

So, _this_ was love…

*""*

Thanks for reading! Feel free to review ;]


	11. Disapointment

I'm ba-ack! And man, I've just had the best month of my life... *sigh*

But anyways, here's the next chapter. Read on!

*""*

Peter had never ridden on the Hogwarts Express all alone before, and it was a very eerie feeling.

The long halls of compartments were impossibly silent and impeccably clean. There was no laughter or voices to mask the conspicuous chugging of the steam engine, and try as he may, Pete simply couldn't block out that steady sound.

And the worst part of it was, that it was the middle of the night. When Peter looked out the window, there was an impenetrable blackness for miles and miles… save when they passed a lonely town with scattered streetlights.

Merlin, if Peter had known how horrid taking the train alone would have been, he would never have opted to come back to school early.

But, the fact of the matter was, even if he had chosen to stay at home, his parents would likely have sent him back early anyways. This was because of his less than impressive mid term marks.

Peter sighed as he remembered their disappointment. They had both been very bright students in their year, so it hurt them personally when their child was as slow and dimwitted as he was. And when Peter had invited his friends over one summer, his parents had done nothing but compare him to them. Why couldn't he be more charming, hard working, and intelligent, like they were?

It had embarrassed Peter to no end.

So, now he was headed back five days early, to _study_, his parents had told him. Yeah right. More likely they just wanted to be rid of him and enjoy their lovely holiday without their 'challenged' son.

Still, Peter knew that he would find a way to show them, one day, that he was so much more than all of his friends. He would make them proud one day, he just knew it.

Looking out the window, Peter saw that the sun was finally starting to rise, illuminating the Scottish landscape. With it, rose Peter's spirits.

He'd do better this term, that was all. Starting as soon as possible; after all, how hard could it be?

Wait? Wasn't Sirius still at the castle as well? Yes, he was! Moreover, he was all alone and almost certainly bored out of his mind. Peter would just ask him to tutor him for a while, and try to improve his marks! After all, Sirius probably wouldn't have anything better to do, and he always looked out for the other Marauders. Peter almost smiled, and thanked Merlin that he had such loyal friends.

*""*

When Sirius woke up the next morning, he stretched his arms up above his head and yawned. Then, after he'd rubbed the sleep from his eyes and started feeling less groggy, he received the shock of his life; Peter Pettigrew was standing over his bed, holding his wand and staring at him with an almost hungry look in his beady little eyes.

"What the…_DON'T EAT ME_!"

Sirius jumped off of his bed and bolted to the bathroom, slamming the door.

Slightly alarmed, Peter meekly walked over to the door and knocked. His reply was a shaky, "Wormtail, was that really you? Or am I having a nightmare?"

"No, it's me. I came back early!"

The door to the bathroom opened just a crack, "Oh. Wait… why?"

"To catch up on studying."

Sirius rolled his eyes, then opened the door fully, "Peter, tell me you're joking?"

For a moment, the round wizard didn't know what to say, then: "It… was my parent's idea, actually. You know how they are."

Now, normally, Sirius would have just patted his friend on the back and said, "Sure, Pete. And, since I'm pretty sure you'll need it, I'll be the wonderful person that I am, and help you study," but today he was in a bit of a touchy mood. So he only narrowed his grey eyes,

"Actually, I'm not really what you'd call an _expert_ on normal parent behavior. Mine periodically use the Cruciatus on me, you see."

Peter winced, "Sorry, I forgot."

And then Sirius started to feel his temper flaring up; tactless as Peter was, he should have known better. How do you forget things like that?

"Yeah I know, Pete. You _forgot._ Well, I've gotta go now, alright? I'm meeting someone, and _no_, you can't tag along this time. Sorry"

But as Sirius left his less popular friend all alone in the dorm, he felt anything but sorry.

Nope, his head was full of Heather. After kissing her the day before, he couldn't wait to spend some more time with her today. And what he felt for her… it was amazing, like nothing he'd ever felt before. It was better than flying, better than he'd felt when he'd discovered he was quidditch captain, and it was even better then he felt when he was with his best friends. It must have been what James had felt all those years for Lily…

_Merlin, no wonder James didn't want to hang out; he was in love. And I didn't know what that was… I was such an idiot._

*""*

Sirius was so lost in his own emotions that he barely noticed as Dumbledore walked past him. The old man had started to look more somber as time passed, worrying about the rising Dark Lord who threatened everything Hogwarts stood for. But somber as Dumbledore looked, he was softly humming a very familiar tune. It was the tune of a nursery rhyme, but Sirius didn't pay enough attention to catch what it was.

*""*

It had only been ten minutes, and already James was starting to feel horribly discouraged.

Even after all of his frantic jumping, arm waving, and shouting until he was hoarse, no taxzee had shown up to take him to Lily. And to make matters worse, people from the other houses on the block had started shouting at him to shut up, one person even having the audacity to threaten to call the police.

Finally, one person came outside and called him over, "Oi! You! Crazy shouting boy!"

James looked over at the person calling him; she was a tough looking middle aged woman, "Yeah?"

"Where the hell are you trying to go?"

"77 Starfield Drive."

"Well then, shut up and listen. That place is only about five blocks away. So if I give you directions, will you scram?"

The old lady raised an eyebrow threateningly, but the corners of her mouth twitched when James gave her a dazzling –ray of hope- smile, "Oh, yes! Yes!"

So, she told him the route, and when he left, he shoved her a small box of chocolate as a thank you before shooting off like a rocket. When she opened the box of chocolate, though, she received the shock of her life; inside was a miniature frog, made entirely out of what looked like pure, creamy milk chocolate.

It hopped into her hand, looked her in the eye, then hopped to her shoulder. And when she gently picked it up, still in shock, and placed it onto her palm, the frog leapt into her gaping mouth. It melted on her tongue and was the most delectable chocolate she'd ever tasted, and the lady told stories of the boy and the wonderful, magical, chocolate frog at family reunions every year for the rest of her life.


	12. The Starfield Cloakroom

Alright, before you read this, I'd just like to ask a favour of you guys. See, I'm in _dire_ need of a beta; I usually just read my stories over myself, but I just can't seem to find the time for that anymore...

And it wouldn't be for this story, it'd actually be for a little Ron/Hermione two-shot I'm working on. So, if anyone is willing to help me out, please either PM me or let me know in a review; I'd be very, _very_ grateful. That said, read on =]

*""*

"Almost there, almost there…" James chanted to himself as he ran off through the December snow, cold wind forcing it's way into his thin sweater and snow trying it's best to do the same with his boots. But the cold wasn't what was making the young wizard testy, and neither was it the fact that his nose was still throbbing from being slammed against Lily's fireplace. No, the main reason why James was in such a hurry to reach his destination was simply that he missed Lily. And this was why he was absolutely thrilled when he arrived.

77 Starfield Drive, apparently, was the address for Starfield Hall; a very large and ritzy looking banquet hall. It was so formal that when James reached the door, he was met with a pompous looking doorman in a suit, who requested that he show his invitation.

It was clear, as he eyed James' black jeans, loose grey hooded sweatshirt, messy hair and swollen nose, that he was not about to let him in without one - no matter how nicely he pleaded - so James did the only possible thing: he discreetly pulled his wand out of his back pocket, and aimed it between the doorman's eyes.

"What the devil are you doing, young hoolig-"

"_Confundo_."

The doorman blinked, and looked at James blankly for a moment. Then, his expression became a polite smile, "Can I help you?"

James smiled convincingly, "Yes, actually, you were just letting me in."

For a moment the man frowned, "Was I?" He tried to think back, but seemed unable to remember what had happened the minute before, "Well… sorry about that son, I suppose my mind's just going. Old age and all."

James smiled, shrugging sympathetically, and the doorman held his door open for him. The minute James was inside the banquet hall, the man forgot that he'd ever seen him.

*""*

It was official: Lily was having the worst winter holiday of her entire life. From the moment she'd arrived home from the train station everything had gone horribly awry.

And now here she was, wearing a horrid, pink, fluffy dress in a disgustingly festive room full of people whom she either didn't know or didn't like (barring her parents, of course) and she had to look as if she were having the time of her life.

_Diddle _Starfield banquet hall; didn't it realize that she absolutely _hated_ its cheery red, white and green balloons? Did they _have_ to be covered in sayings like _Happy Christmas! _or _To the Happy Couple! _And did there _have _to be annoyingly jolly plastic elves, reindeer and Santa's everywhere? Why in diddles name did everyone but her have to look so... _content_? It made her feel like the Grinch, or Scrooge in copmarison. Christmas had always been one of her favourite times of year, and Lily just couldn't believe that she'd lost it.

Unable to grin blithely at the guests a moment longer, Lily excused herself under the pretence of getting some air. Leaving the stifling main ballroom for the chilly reception era, Lily then decided to enter the deserted cloakroom, where all of the walls were lined with the guests' dripping winter coats. This room suited Lily's mood much more perfectly than the ballroom, but it wasn't until she was absolutely certain that she was all alone that she plopped herself onto a wooden bench intended for bags, and let her tears flow freely.

But unbeknownst to the miserable red head, the moment she'd sat down and begun her sobbing, an uninvited guest had silently opened to door to, and snuck into, her cloakroom. The stranger didn't notice her, though, he was too preoccupied with magically drying off his clothes, and then attempting to transfigure his ragged hoodie into a neat suit jacket with a wand.

For a moment, neither of them noticed the other, then all at once they both looked up: "James?"

"Lily!"

And then he'd run up to her, lifted her off the bench and gathered her in his arms, holding on for dear life, "Merlin, Lily, you've no idea how much I… _blimey_."

Lily, who was still trying to convince herself that she wasn't merely dreaming, buried her face into his now warm and dry shoulder, still sobbing. "James, you're the _only_ person who could make me feel better right now; you _can't_ know how glad I am to see you!"

The note of misery in her voice pierced James like ice, but for her sake, he didn't show it, "Of _course_ you're glad to see me; I'm awesome and incredibly talented, remember?" His tone was completely nonchalant.

"Prat." She held him tighter, almost desperately, as if she was afraid he would disappear if she ever let go. James gently patted her on the back, and wondered what could possibly have happened to reduce Lily to a crying mess.

Finally, she released him, and they sat down together on the bench. There was silence for a moment, then James had to ask, "Lily… what happened?"

Her eyes fell to the floor, "What d'you mean?"

"I _mean_, why haven't you replied to any of my letters? Why does your house look as if no one's been there for _weeks_? And why were you crying in here by yourself? What _happened?_"

"Why were you in my house…?"

"I'll explain after you do."

"Well… I –"

And then it all came pouring out. How the minute Lily had arrived back home with her parents, they'd informed her that the Dursley's had invited them all over for the holidays, and they'd had no choice but to accept. How she'd been forced to empty her school trunk and re-pack it with muggle clothes, and then leave all her magical belongings behind. Then she'd been forced to leave Merlin in his cage at home, and when they'd arrived at the Dursley's place she had been told (by Petunia) to cast a spell on it that would deflect any owls from coming within twenty meters of the building; they simply _couldn't_have the Dursleys freaking out about the winged creatures arriving all hours of the day. So all of the owls who'd attempted to bring Lily mail would have arrived at the house, been unable to deliver her mail, then they would have left to drop it off at her home. She'd been cut off from all her friends and tugged into a world she didn't belong to. And Petunia seemed to love it.

"And to make it all worse", Lily continued tearfully, "I wasn't even allowed to go home and _check _my mail: mum said that _Petunia_ would never forgive me if I missed anything at the wonderful Dursleys' house. At first I didn't understand, but then it happened, on Christmas Eve."

The contemptuous way Lily spoke her sister's name reminded James of how Sirius spoke of Regulus, and he found himself completely understanding why she didn't like to talk about her sister. Lily was an outsider, she didn't fit into her family any more than Sirius fit with his. James knew exactly what she was going through.

"On Christmas eve,"Lily finished sadly, "the walrus proposed to her."

James raised an eyebrow, "The _walrus_?"

Looking flustered, Lily replied, "_Yes_, the walrus. D'you think you're the _only_ one who can come up with nicknames? _Huh_? Am I not _worthy_?"

Trying his best to act as if Lily's behavior was perfectly rational, James hid a smile, "No, no, nothing like that. I was merely inquiring about who was, er, _lucky_ enough to have earned the honor of being called _the walrus_…"

Lily's mouth twitched, "That would be the Dursley's son, _Vernon._ Oh James, you'd hate him; he's so selfish, smelly and _horrible_."

Now James laughed outright, "_Smelly?_"

"It's his cologne, I swear he _marinades _in the stuff every morning; he takes longer in the shower than Geeta. And he hates me. He completely _hates_ me."

Lily spoke in a little voice, and James put his arm around her, "So? Who _cares_ if the walrus hates you?"

"Petunia."

Unfazed, James continued, "Well, who _cares_ that Petunia cares that the walrus hates you?"

She blinked, "I do!"

"Well then, who cares that you care that the walrus cares that… er, I messed that up, didn't I?"

Lily nodded with a small smile, and James smiled back, "I guess what I'm _trying_ to say, is that you _shouldn't_ care. If they can't appreciate you for the wonderful person that you are, then they're not worth it."

"But… " Lily started slowly, "she's my _sister_, James. And this is _her _engagement party. I should be there for her, no matter what. Just because she treats _me_ like dirt, doesn't mean I should treat _her_ the same way, right?"

She looked at James with passion in her green eyes, daring him to contradict her, and James felt his heart well up with pride. _This _was why he loved Lily. Not because she was stunning, brilliant, funny or a great kisser, but because she was the most selfless, righteous and kind hearted person he knew. She inspired him, more than he'd ever be able to tell her, and he found himself wishing desperately that one day, he'd be more like her.

"Right, Lily. You're _absolutely_ right. But… I can't let you go in there alone; I'll go with you."

She smiled, "What?"

"Well, I've wanted to meet your parents for a while anyway, so why not now? But I'll need some help getting ready…"

Lily's smile had spread into a wide grin; going back into the engagement room with the snobbish Dursley's didn't seem half as daunting now that James would be going with her. "Sure. Let's start with your shoes- wait a minute… James Potter, what have you done to your _nose_?"

Following her exclamation, James was forced to explain everything that had happened to him since he'd flood to her house, and Lily found it all deeply amusing; particularly his efforts to catch a taxi. By the time he was ready, her spirits had improved so much that it would be impossible for an outsider to guess that she'd been crying mere moments before. And with that, the two of them left the cloakroom (startling a janitor who'd been about to enter, as James still had a lighted wand out) and walked hand in hand towards the ballroom.


	13. Going Back

Now, while I may take extended breaks from things, I _never_ abandon them. And now that the Winter Break's coming up, I'm planning on some serious writing: hiatus is _over_ baby! Besides: I finally found my original notes for this story, so I can get back to it =]

*'''*

Petunia almost couldn't believe how perfectly her engagement party had been going. For once, all of her parent's attention hadn't been on beautiful, talented, magical, Head Girl Lily, but entirely on herself. This was _her _night, and as she caught sight of herself, dolled up and flushed, in a nearby gilded mirror, Petunia even tricked herself into believing that she was prettier than her sister ever was.

Then, her bubble was popped by the stunning, emerald eyed beauty re-entering the ballroom, with a handsome stranger on her arm. Somehow, Lily looked even more lovely than usual by his simply being there.

Turning to where her parents had been, Petunia started to ask who the man was and why she hadn't been informed that he was invited… but her parents were already gone; enthralled by the perfect couple. Petunia, on the other hand, refused to give her little sister the satisfaction of approaching her first, so she marched off to hang on Vernon's arm. And try as she might to stop it, she couldn't help comparing him to the man on Lily's arm.

Vernon wasn't fat, but he was certainly on the large side. He had a thick matt of hair, the beginnings of an unattractive mustache, no neck and beady eyes.

The stranger on the other hand- who Petunia had gathered was the James that Lily had complained so much about when she was younger – had a slim, but perfect physique; like a runner. He also had very handsome features; high cheekbones, adorable dimples, beautiful hazel eyes, and attractively messy jet black hair. Needless to say, he looked much better in his tux than her fiancé.

Then they came over. Lily, who looked apprehensive yet pleased, smiled at her sister, "Hi Petunia, Vernon. I'd like you two to meet my boyfriend, James Potter."

The gorgeous creature bowed, holding out his hand (good _grief_, his forearm was as perfect as the ones on Roman sculptures…) to shake Vernon's, "Pleasure to meet you both, and congratulations! Here's hoping that you manage not to kill each other within the first year."

James winked, and Vernon shook his hand with an undistinguishable grunt. Lily smiled at Petunia, but the latter looked pointedly away at a plastic reindeer.

Soon, Mr. and Mrs. Evans joined them, and only minutes afterwards they had fallen under James' spell: they were completely enchanted by him. He was handsome! Charming! Told the funniest stories! Had good personal hygiene! Was in love with perfect Lily! Oh, wasn't he perfectly _magnificent_?

And just like that, Petunia's day had just become another one of Lily's. Unable to take it, Petunia -

*""*

"- walked away? You mean, she just turned and left?" The girl's voice was so loud and incredulous that it carried right out of the tiny train compartment and into the hallway.

Lily sighed, wishing that her friends would drop the issue and focus all of their attention on the game of _Exploding Snap_ at hand. Dropping a card and quickly swiping it for one of the others laid out on the seat before her, she said "Yes, Alice. We were all standing there, my parents, Vernon, Petunia, James and I, and James was saying something about how we met. Then Petunia saw fit to turn her back on us and leave."

Geeta frowned disapprovingly, as she slyly peaked into Alice's hand, "What a _toad_. What a snotty, nasty, slimy, rude little –"

"Geeta!" Lily exclaimed as Alice burst into giggles, not even caring that the card she'd been after had just exploded, "That's my _sister_ you're talking about!"

With a shrug, Geeta indicated that she didn't particularly care, "So?"

"But Geeta, don't you see?" Alice chimed in, "If Lily's _sister_ is a snotty, nasty, slimy rude little toad… what does that make her?"

"Why Alice, it makes her a snotty, nasty, slimy, rude little _tadpole_, what else?"

"Ah."

Lily glared at her friends, and then noticed that the card she needed had finally been dropped. She made a grab for it and held up her completed set triumphantly. Geeta and Alice, for their parts, threw their cards down onto the seat and managed to back off before they exploded with a loud _SNAP_'s.

Then the full card deck re-materialized and Geeta shoved it back into her pocket; she'd had more than enough of the game and was eager to begin some more gossip. "Well, Alice, how was _your_ holiday, then?"

Alice smiled dreamily, reminding both Lily and Geeta that she'd spent most of her holiday abroad in Italy with her parents and Frank Longbottom. She had just finished discussing how beautiful and intriguing Florence had been (a concentration of the world's most brilliant wizards had lived there, from the ruling Medici family to Galileo, to Michelangelo…) when their compartment door slid open, and two boys grinned at them rather sheepishly.

"Er, we finished our patrol early…" said the one on the right, "So could we come in?"

The girls looked at each other, eyebrow's raised. "Finished early have you, Lupin?"

The boy who'd spoken nodded at Lily, sporting an expression of wide-eyed innocence. "And you're _positive_ you didn't merely get bored and decide to take a break?"

The messy haired individual beside Remus shook his head so earnestly that Alice had to laugh, "Oh, ignore Lily, come on in, guys!"

And she moved to make room for the two of them. Now Alice, Remus and James were on one side, while Lily and Geeta remained on the other. Naturally, these arrangements didn't suit Lily or Geeta at all.

"Say Alice," Geeta started, "d'you want to switch places?"

The brown haired girl smiled sweetly at her friend, "Not really, I'm pretty comfortable where I am." Remus, who'd been sitting next to her caught on, and grinned, "Me too!" He put a casual arm around Alice, who snickered.

Geeta faked a glare, and stuck out her tongue. Then, relaxing, she asked, "Well, how was your holiday Remus?"

The Prefect sighed, "Long. My parents were really worried the entire time, you know, because You Know Who's after werewolves. So they spent a lot of the holiday stressing and adding extra protective charms to our spare place. But Christmas was nice. What about you, Geeta?"

Geeta smiled at her boyfriend, "Long. I was missing a certain someone, but it appears that he didn't think of me once during the entire holiday."

"Didn't miss you? Come here!" And Remus held his arms open wide for his girlfriend, who promptly sat down in his lap and kissed his cheek." This left Lily all alone, so she pouted. "Oh sure, abandon me. Geets, you're a fickle friend if I ever saw one."

Geeta giggled, then pushed James off of his seat and onto the floor, "Go on, scruffy, your damsel awaits!"

James landed with an unceremonious thump, and glared back at his Indian friend. Then, he turned around and saw an extended hand hovering before his nose. Taking it with a grin, he allowed Lily to pull him up to the seat beside her. Raising a playful brow at her, he asked, "So Lily, how was _your_ holiday?"

She grinned, "Well, it started out pretty horribly, but it turned out all right in the end."

"And why was that?" James pushed, "Did it have anything to do with a certain tall dark and _incredibly_ handsome fellow we all know and love?"

Lily's grin grew wider, "No, actually; I didn't really have a chance to _see_ Sirius over the holiday"

James pouted, and Lily laughed, "But I guess that seeing you wasn't _so_ bad either."

Rolling his eyes, James put an arm around the redhead and smiled, "Wish I could say the same about you, love…"

But he spoke absentmindedly. When Lily had mentioned his former best friend, his thoughts had turned dark. They took him back to the last night before the holidays, when Sirius had doused her in that foul liquid, and then merely watched as the entire room laughed at her.

After all, with her sister, and with almost all of Slytherin house constantly antagonizing her, Lily did _not_ need him on her case too. How could he have done that? Before he'd pulled that prank, James had been pretty sure that the he knew Sirius like the back of his hand. He'd thought that their fight would end, like all of the other arguments they'd had, and that they would be like brothers again.

Diddle, had he ever been wrong.


	14. The Last Day

Sirius spent his last few days of the break almost exclusively with Heather. In fact, on most days he was already down eating breakfast with her by the time Peter clambered out of bed. So, Peter was left entirely to his own devices; an experience which was entirely new to him.

At the beginning, he spent his time attempting to study by reading over his class notes and school books… but he soon gave that up as a waste of time. See, he could never manage to understand any of it without one of his brilliant three best friends lending a hand, and he was too scared to ask Sirius for help again. Sure, his friend had cooled off since Peter's first day back, but Peter knew that he wouldn't be happy about spending any more of his time with his chubby buddy instead of his gorgeous girlfriend, and he didn't want to annoy him.

For this reason, Peter took to wandering the Hogwarts halls. After a while, he started transforming into a rat, so that he could explore and sneak into the kitchens completely unnoticed. Then, it occurred to him to follow Sirius and see who his new girlfriend was: he couldn't for the life of him recall what the quiet Slytherin girl named Heather looked like.

That morning, he woke early but stayed in bed, pretending to be asleep. He remained motionless, listening for the telltale creaking sound that Sirius's bed made when he got up, and didn't get out of his own bed until Sirius had closed the door and begun his descent of the Gryffindor Tower. Then, he quietly crept out of bed, transformed into his trademark rodent and hurried to catch up to his friend.

Once Peter had Sirius in his line of sight, it was only too easy to remain hidden in the early morning shadows behind him. His paws made the faintest scuttling noises as he trailed his target, but Sirius was too preoccupied to hear.

Peter followed his friend all the way down to the Herbology Gardens, where Heather was waiting; and then he was completely blown away. She was breathtakingly beautiful; fair and slim, and she had a wonderful air of innocence in her face like a child. And her arresting, wide brown eyes lit up like stars when she saw Sirius coming. How had no one ever noticed her before?

Feeling relatively certain that he was in the presence of the most beautiful person who'd ever graced the planet, Peter realized that he didn't blame Sirius in the least for abandoning him. But it still hurt. Because when Peter saw the perfect couple before him, his own feeble relationships stood out in stark contrast. Did he really love _anyone_ as they loved each other? Was there _anyone_ in the world who really loved him?

And just like that, Peter realized that he couldn't stay there watching anymore; he couldn't take it. So, he left the room, transformed back into a boy in a nearby broom cupboard (he thought that he'd heard Mrs. Norris earlier, and didn't want to take any chances…), and began trudging back towards the Gryffindor Common Room.

It was then that he was spotted by one of the only other students who was still staying at the castle: Severus Snape.

*""*

Snape had been looking for the plump boy for a long time now, but somehow he'd never been able to locate him. But that didn't matter, now was his chance.

Stealthily creeping up behind Peter, he spoke, "_There_you are, Pettigrew. I've been looking all over for you."

Peter let out a yelp and jumped almost a foot in the air from fright. Then, he turned around and pointed his wand at Snape; what do you want?"

_Does he honestly think that pulling his wand out will make any difference against __me__? He's pathetic._

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Snape plastered a grimace-like smile to his face, "Relax, Pettigrew. I was just wondering how you were."

If anything, this made Peter feel even _more_ wary; _nobody_ever cared about how he was doing. No one at all. "D - don't lie to me, Snape. What do you want?"

_Hmmm, so he's not quite as stupid as I'd first suspected… no matter, I'll soon win him over._

Snape's smile became real as he realized that Peter may have more merit than he was aware of, "Peter, all I want is to talk to you. You see, over the last few months I couldn't help but notice that you don't truly… belong with the Gryffindor's you used to spend your time with."

"Don't you think I know that?" Peter snapped, feeling rather hurt. He didn't need anyone else reminding him that he wasn't nearly as popular or talented as his friends. "And what do you mean _used to_ spend my time with?"

Attempting to look sympathetic, Snape backtracked, "I simply meant that your so called friends haven't exactly been flocking to you with the enthusiasm they ought to. After all, you're so much cleverer than they are."

Peter scoffed, "Now I _know_ you're lying."

"Not at all," Snape extoled, " They may have book smarts, but they aren't nearly as quick thinking as you are. Besides, they're always wasting their time with childish pranks and girls, whey they could be achieving such more; especially if they took the time to consult _you_."

Here Peter couldn't help smiling despite his inner doubts. It was seldom that anyone saw anything in him that was praiseworthy. "You know, maybe you're right…"

With a grin, Snape replied, "Of _course_ I am. And to prove it, I'd like to invite you to a little get together that me and some friends are having when they get back. We could use a guy like you, Peter."

"It's a young death eater meeting, isn't it." Peter stated dubiously. The Marauder in him was telling him that he shouldn't trust a word the slick Slytherin said, but it's voice was being drowned out by Peter's desire to be accepted.

Snape laughed, "Who did you here that from; your _friends_? They like to make us sound far more evil than we are to make themselves look more heroic; remember that."

Turning this new thought over in his mind, Peter realized that it made sense; James and Sirius _did_ have large egos. What if they'd been lying to him about their accomplishments all these years just to make themselves look more impressive than him?

"Alright, Snape. When is this meeting?"

*""*

"Oh, won't you _please_ come with me? _Please_?"

"No, Sirius, I'm busy arranging posies."

Plopping himself down on his usual stump by the greenhouse entrance, Sirius rolled his eyes at his girlfriend, "And what, _pray tell_, is a posy?"

Heather smiled at him gaily, "A posy is a bouquet of small flowers, and I happen to be an expert at putting them together."

Sirius huffed, "Alright, I'm going to ask you just _one more_time nicely and then I'll have to resort to drastic measures. Will you or will you not come with me to Hogsmeade to see our friends arrive in the Hogwarts Express."

Heather let out one of her tinkly laughs, "Hmmm… well, I've told you _no_ about ten times already, so saying yes now would just make me look weak willed."

"That's perfectly fine with me!" Sirius exclaimed irritably, "Now please come already. We're going to be late, and I don't want to have to take you by force."

"You wouldn't." Heather said softly, not even turning around from her pots of flowers.

"Would too." Sirius teased, getting off of his stump to sneak up behind her and whisper in her ear.

But Heather only laughed again. Turning to face him, she smiled her dazzling smile, "No, you wouldn't. You're too much of a gentleman." And she leaned in to kiss him softly on the cheek. "Now, take this," she whispered, holding out a lovely bunch of flowers to him.

Sirius eyed the little bouquet of tiny red and gold blooms with an eyebrow raised, "As the man in this relationship," he started, "shouldn't _I_ be bringing _you_ flowers?"

"Oh, just take them." Heather giggled, gently placing her small gift into the pocket of Sirius' robes, "Now go to Hogsmeade already, or you'll be too late to see the train arrive."

Sirius sighed, "Fine, I'll go alone. But I'm _not_ happy. And if there's one thing you never _ever_ want to do love, it's make a Black angry."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm quivering in my robes," Heather laughed. Then, she gave Sirius one last peck on the lips before turning back to her flowers.

Sirius, for his part, was preparing to make a truly heartfelt apology to James. He'd finally forgiven his friend and had truly started to miss him. So, with a light heart, he started off for Hogsmeade Station.


	15. A Monthly Issue

Needless to say, when Sirius arrived at Hogsmeade, ready to finally fix things with his best friends, he was sorely disappointed. Now it was James who was angry and cold, and he didn't speak a word to Sirius, no matter how many times the latter apologized or pleaded. In the end, Sirius did as Remus advised him and left James alone to cool off.

But, they did manage to remain civil to one another, if a bit aloof. They only interacted during quidditch practices and classes, and Remus went back to dividing his time between the two. It wasn't too bad for the poor werewolf this time, though, because Remus knew that by now the argument had lost most of its original fire; James and Sirius were almost certain to make up by the end of the week.

Sirius realized this too, so he was always careful to give James his space and remain in a cheery mood. The only attempts he made to apologize to James again were done via mail: he sent his best friends dozens of letters. Some of these were funny, others sincere, but they all ended the same way: I was a slimy git for doing what I did, but please try to forgive me.

These letters, while rather irritating after a day or two, were also very entertaining, and they truly made James smile. On the third day back from the holidays, James was chuckling over one such letter during DADA class when Lily noticed him from across the room. Elbowing Remus, who was sitting next to her that day, she whispered, "Remus, look up from that essay for a moment; I need to talk to you."

With a sigh, Moony looked up from his paper, and with a start Lily noticed that he looked awful. His normally neat hair was falling into his eyes in an uncombed tangle, his eyes themselves were slightly bloodshot with dark circles beneath them, and he was as pale as a vampire. "Remus what –" Lily started, but then she recalled what day it was, "oh… I forgot. Full moon tonight."

Remus grimaced, "Is it that obvious?"

Lily shook her head and smiled kindly, "No, not at all. But here; let me fix your hair."

And she began carefully brushing his soft brown hair into place with her fingers, ignoring the mock glare that Geeta was shooting her from across the classroom. Remus noticed his girlfriend's expression too, and winked at her playfully. Then he turned back to Lily, "Thanks for that. Now, what was it you wanted to talk about?"

Swallowing, Lily spoke, "Nothing, really. I mean, you've got enough to worry about without me dumping my troubles onto your plate."

"No really, Lily, it's fine. What's going on?"

Lily smiled; Remus really was a very sweet person. When she'd been younger, she'd fancied to herself that he was the only boy at Hogwarts whom she could ever have a crush on. She later realized that his personality was far too similar to her own for a relationship to work. "Well, it's about James…"

Remus nodded, a tiny half grin lightening his weary features, "Naturally."

Playfully nudging him, Lily continued, "No, it's serious. I need to know why he and Sirius are fighting. I haven't seen them speak to each other once since I've gotten back, and it's worrying me."

Here Remus blinked with surprise, "You mean, James never told you what the fight was about?" Lily shook her head.

Looking away from the redhead, Remus spoke softly, "Well, if he hasn't told you yet, then he probably wouldn't want me to – "

"Remus!"

"No, really! He'll tell you when he's ready. Now, er, look at the time! We've only got ten minutes left to finish these essays on Imperi!"

Lily narrowed her emerald eyes at her friend, "Don't even _try_ to change the subject Remus."

Widening his light blue eyes with innocence, Remus replied by saying, "What d'you mean?"

"You know perfectly well what I mean; You finished your essay _twenty minutes ago_."

"Well…" Remus paused to think of an excuse, "Have you finished _yours_? If not, you're running out of time."

With a huff, Lily shook her head disapprovingly at Remus, "_I_ finished about five minutes before you did."

Remus gasped, looking absolutely appalled, "No you did _not_. I was already looking mine over when you put your quill down."

Now Lily's pride was at stake, "_What?_ That can't be right; I was positive that I finished first… Wait, how many times have you looked yours over?"

"Three."

Lily laughed aloud, "Ha! I'm on my fourth time."

Remus scoffed, "That's because yours is shorter."

"What? Of course it isn't, I – hang on… what was I asking you before this argument started?"

Ignoring Remus's shrug, Lily suddenly remembered, "Oh, right! I was asking you about what caused James and Sirius' fight."

"What fight?"

"Lupin!"

Remus closed his eyes, looking pained, "Lily could you please keep it down; I've got a horrible headache because of my – condition."

Lily's emerald eyes went wide, "Oh, I'm so sorry, Remus, I completely forgot about that, how can I help? "

"Just – speak quietly, alright?"

Lily nodded, "Sure thing. So do you always get headaches like this before – "

But she was cut off by the Hogwarts bell tolling, to signify the end of the period. Quickly, she packed up her things and turned back to Remus to continue their conversation. But by the time she looked over he had already dashed to door. He did turn to glance at her, though, when he felt her staring, and he waved at her with a mischievous wink.

Then he skedaddled out of the room, laughing, with Sirius close behind him.

Lily wanted to frown at his antics, but found herself smiling instead:

_Headache my __arse; he's fit as a fiddle!__Prefect or not, that boy's a Marauder through and through._

*""*

Remus checked the sky again, making sure that he still had a little bit of time left before the vibrantly scarlet sun dropped beneath the horizon. His experience with such things told him that he had about ten minutes until nightfall, but he was still starting to feel anxious as he stood all by himself in front of the ominous Whomping Willow.

Where were his friends? None of them had said anything to him about missing the full moon this month, and Remus knew that they would never abandon him when he needed them the most… or at least, he hoped that they wouldn't. Turning away from the enchanted tree before him to glance back at the sky, Remus swallowed hard; he now only had about five minutes, and he didn't have a wand on him. He seldom brought it for fear that he might snap it to pieces once he'd transformed, and because he knew that Peter would always be there to scurry up to the Whomping willow and touch the knothole which opened the passage for him. Tonight though, he was inexplicably all alone and unarmed, meaning that he'd be unable to open the path to the shrieking shack, _and_ that he'd have no one there to distract him and keep him from ripping himself to shreds.

Moreover, he was scared. He hadn't transformed alone in years, bu his memories of how painful it was were vividly clear. Much worse, though, was the fact that he'd be stuck on the Hogwarts grounds.

Although it was school rules that students stay in their dorms after dark, there were always a few adventurous students who liked to sneak out, and what Remus feared above all else was that he'd attack someone, or turn someone else into the monster that he was.

Then Remus felt his skin start to prickle - the first effect of the moonlight. It wouldn't be long now. He turned back towards the impenetrable Whomping Willow and decided that, no matter how loathe he was to do it, his only choice was to run into the Forbidden forest where no students would be able to find him.

Just as Remus was taking a deep breath and getting ready to run, he heard the sound of fast wing beats and saw a flash of gold whiz by his left ear then double back again to hover behind his head.

_What the – _

Remus looked over his shoulder at the hovering object, and he realized that it was only a stray golden snitch. Thankfully, though, it was flying away from him at a rapid pace. In the growing twilight, it glowed with a sheen of its own, and this light illuminated a dark figure that was flying towards it determinedly. With relief, Remus realized that the figure would grab the snitch at a great distance from him, and likely not notice him dashing to the woods at all, due to the dark.

_Time to go, Remus… the sun's final rays are almost gone, and those clouds won't hang in front of the moon forever…_

Remus's mind was repeating these instructions to him over and over, but his instinct was telling him that sprinting into the forbidden forest on his own was madness. This was because few of the animals inside of it would take kindly to a werewolf, and several would attempt to best him. So, he hesitated again. Behind him, the figure had finally caught up with the snitch with a shout of triumph (was she the best seeker Gryffindor had ever had or _what_?) , and then her sharp eyes noticed that there was a boy a dozen or so meters in front of her, who looked as though he was contemplating a trip to the forbidden forest.

"Hello? You there, are you all right?"

Still on her broom, Geeta flew closer and closer. Then, with a start, she realized that the boy was, "Remus?"

He jumped as he heard her soft, worried voice coming from right behind him. Spinning around with a start, he looked at his girlfriend with wide petrified eyes; "Geeta, wh-what are you doing here? Never mind, just get _away_ from here; _now_! Oh, diddle, it's too late!"

His blue eyes slid from her face to the full moon shining through the parting clouds above, and he felt his mind start to slip. All he could think about was the excruciating pain of transformation (skin tearing as he grew larger, fur pushing through his pores, long teeth gnashing wildly…), and the last thing his conscious mind was aware of was Geeta's piercing screams…


	16. Out Late

Geeta had been out late for a bit of extra seeking practice, as she always was before an upcoming Quidditch match, when she'd decided to let her snitch out of the pitch. It wasn't the first time she'd done this; as she thought that chasing it all over the grounds and around various obstacles (trees, for example) was much more challenging than an empty arena.

She had been training harder than usual, to take out her frustration at the fact that the team's other two star players, James and Sirius, were still refusing to get along with each other. In fact, she'd been on her broom and pushing herself to the limit for the past two hours when she'd set the snitch on the grounds, telling herself that she'd make one final catch before heading to the showers. So, she was now tailing the little golden ball with a final burst of adrenaline; though her muscles ached and her mind was beginning to succumb to the rest it had been deprived of. Still, the snitch was putting up a very good fight; allowing her to come close and then swerving madly in a new direction. Geeta was so intent on it that she hardly noticed the sun's final rays start to disappear over the horizon, or the blazing orange sky turning into a deep violet twilight.

At last, though, the snitch started towards the most dangerous obstacle on all of the Hogwarts grounds; the Whomping Willow. Geeta knew that if it managed to get entangled in the massive trees whip-like branches, then it was lost to her, and this thought spurred her on. Leaning foreword so that her chin was almost resting on the broom's handle, she accelerated madly after the ball. The night wind whistled in her ears and her braided hair streamed out behind her as she reached towards her goal… and "YEAH!" The snitch was hers.

Exuberant, and completely ready for a nice hot shower, Geeta suddenly noticed that there was a person standing in the snow a few meters in front of her; dangerously close to the Whomping Willow. His back was turned, but she could make out his Gryffindor robes and light hair. He wasn't moving, but his face was angled towards the forbidden forest beyond. What was wrong with him?

"Hello? You there, are you all right?"

He didn't appear to hear her, or perhaps he simply didn't _want_ to acknowledge her. He was too lost in thought. Then, the settings sun's warm glow fell over the person, and Geeta realized that the profile she was looking at was very familiar. Silently flying closer to him to make sure, Geeta whispered, "Remus?"

He jumped around, clearly startled to see her so close to him, "Geeta, what are you _doing _here?" he spoke, almost angrily at her. His tone made Geeta start to worry. But before she could say anything, he shook his head at her, "Never mind, just get away from here. _NOW_!" He looked at her intently, then swallowed hard, "Oh, diddle, it's too late!"

Remus's blue eyes slid from her face to the full moon shining through the parting clouds above, and he felt his mind start to slip. All he could think about was the excruciating pain of transformation. Geeta, who had finally realized what day it was, and that she was in terrible danger, let out a scream as she saw Remus step back clutching at his forehead. She wasn't screaming from mere fright, though. She was screaming from shock and from horror at the expression on Remus's face. It was plain that he was in excruciating pain, and Geeta's insides twisted as she realized that he went through this every month. Unable to tear her eyes from the boy she loved, Geeta watched as the scars on his face reopened and his features distorted themselves beyond any recognition. She watched as he grew, tearing through his robes with claws that looked like steel, and as fur burst through his skin. And she listened as he howled in pain; the howls becoming less and less human by the second…

Then, thank Merlin, he stopped transforming. But when he looked up at her, Geeta could still see Remus in the werewolf's blue eyes. His eyes were imploring her to leave him. Geeta swallowed, "Remus?"

He blinked, then, completely without warning, the human emotion in his eyes evaporated and he howled at the full moon. When he looked back at Geeta, all she could see in his eyes was a hunger for her flesh, and a carnal desire to cause her pain. That was when her better judgment finally kicked in, and she turned her broom around and flew as quickly as her broom could carry her.

He chased her.

As she flew, Geeta could hear a steady growling and rustling coming from behind her as the beast ran. He was incredibly fast and kept a steady pace with her, no matter how much she urged her broom to speed up. The loud pounding of his paws on the ground was the stuff of nightmares.

Hardly daring to look behind her at the bloodthirsty wolf, she banked left and flew towards the Quidditch pitch. The wolf didn't miss a beat though, turning almost at the same time that she did. It was as if he had read her mind. Suddenly, he leapt up, far higher than Geeta had imagined was possible, and his knife-like claws gripped the tail of her broom. His weight caused the broom to tip over, the top of the handle facing the starry sky and the bristles sinking towards the ground. Geeta's heart pounded faster than it ever had before, as she attempted to jerk her broom and shake him off, but he held fast. Not only that, but he was clawing his way up towards her.

Looking down at the monster, whose fangs were dripping in saliva, whose now yellow eyes locked on hers, and whose claws were inching towards her boots, Geeta made a mental note that she would never _ever_ forget to bring her wand to Quidditch practice again. She pulled herself higher on the broom, hoping to buy herself a few more seconds of life, and contemplated jumping off and into the trees below. Wouldn't _falling_ to her doom be less painful than being torn to shreds and _eaten_?

_No, Geeta. Get a grip, girl, you can't give up now. You're in Gryffindor, diddle it all, FIGHT!_

She swallowed hard, and then threw a glance down at the wolf below her. Was it her imagination, or was he now struggling to hold on? The smooth finish of her broom handle wasn't as easy for him to dig into as the bristles, and his paws scrabbled for a better grip. Realizing that she'd have to strike before the beast regained his footing, Geeta loosened her grip of the broom handle and slid down the broom. The werewolf heard her and opened his steel trap jaws to bite at her feet, but right before they landed there, Geeta threw a kick at the top of his snout and slammed his mouth shut. Then she threw all of her weight into another kick in his right eye. Contact!

The sharp end of her Quidditch boot struck him right in the eye, and he yowled with pain. Before he had a chance to recover, Geeta went for his nose with her other foot, and the beast finally let go. The second he was off of her broom, it righted itself and Geeta shot towards the Quidditch pitch with all of her might. She didn't dare go back to Hogwarts castle because she was afraid that the monster would follow her there. Still, she didn't think that it had gotten back up after its fall.

_Yes! I lost it…_

Finally, she made it to the pitch. Her breathing slowed back to normal as she circled it, then prepared to land and dash to the change rooms to get her wand. That was when she heard the growling again.

_Oh, sweet diddle, __no__…_

Turning to where the sound had come from, she screamed as he saw that the werewolf had climbed to the top of one of the turrets surrounding the pitch and was preparing to take a flying leap towards her. Bloody _hell_, was it ever angry… She swerved out of its path just in time, but it was close; she felt one of its claws graze her wrist guard as it pounced towards her. After it missed her, the beast doubled back and latched onto the side of the turret it had started on. It clambered down nimbly, and then it climbed another tower (the one that was closest to where Geeta hovered in fear) and jumped at her again.

Realizing that the wolf would continue to wear her down all night if she let it, Geeta dived out of it's way again. As it regained its grip on the turret and started to climb down, Geeta made her move. She shot towards the change rooms will every ounce of energy she had left, trying to ignore the sounds of the monster's growling behind her. The closer she was to the ground, the greater the beast's advantage was and she knew it, so she smashed through the door to the Gryffindor change rooms rather than stopping to open it, and made a wild scramble for her wand.

_Merlin, where did I put it, where did I put it?_

She checked her bag, all over her bench and was starting to fumble for the wand beneath the hooks when she heard the monster come crashing into the room behind her. He stopped to look at her and growl menacingly, and Geeta's groping hand _finally_ located the stick of wood that would save her life.

_Alright, now I've got a wand. But Merlin, I don't know how to fight off a werewolf!_

Geeta's heart was beating wildly, and she was panting hard. The wolf ignored her panic, and decided that it was time to finish her off, and teach her a lesson for resisting him. He jumped at her, jaws wide open and aimed for her face. Time seemed to slow down as he flew through the air to spill her blood.

Then, when all hope seemed lost, Geeta's instinct kicked in and she jumped back from the beast while firing her wand at the ceiling above it bellowing, "REDUCTO MAXIMA!"

With a loud **_BANG_ **the heavy planks of wood which held the building together instantly collapsed right on top of the werewolf's head and the rubble buried him completely, just seconds before he made contact with the Gryffindor seeker's nose. He was knocked out cold. Geeta collapsed too, from sheer exhaustion. Moments later, she pulled herself together and cast numerous _Stupefy_ jinxes on the wolf, enough to keep even a troll unconscious for hours. Then, heart still racing from the attack, she quickly repaired the room, left it, then magically locked all of the doors to the changeroom complex so that no one could accidentally come inside.

And then she fleed back to the castle as if the monster was still on her tail, and fell asleep the moment her head touched her pillow. It wasn't until the following morning that it occurred to her that the beast who'd almost killed her, that the beast she'd defeated... was really only her Remus.


	17. Consequences

Alright, I know that this isn't the most exciting chapter in the world, but it was neccesary to show the ramifications of what happened...

Still, I hope you enjoy it =]

*""*

It was already late in the morning when Remus awoke. Slowly he tried to open his eyes, and to his annoyance, he discovered that the right one was swollen shut. Through his left eye, he could make out that he was in one of the Quidditch change rooms for some reason, and that the room looked a tad torn up.

_What the fanged Frisbee am I doing here?_

Stretching his limbs, Remus noted that he was also covered in scratches and had quite a few painful splinters. Moreover, his head was aching dully, as if a garden gnome was sitting on it, periodically pounding it with his fist. Struggling to his feet, Remus located a warm spare robe which someone had left on one of the change room's hooks and pulled it on on top of his tattered clothes; grateful for its warmth. After all, it _was_January and the chill had started to penetrate the room's wooden walls. Remus also found a slightly worn pair of Quidditch boots, which he recognized as James'. He pulled these on as well and then staggered outside.

_Aw diddle, it's __cold__…_

Swearing beneath his breath, Remus staggered back inside.

_So, now what? I can't just stay here, but there's no way in all of diddledom that I'd survive the walk back. Hang on… I'm in a Quidditch change room. With brooms. Magical, enchanted, __flying__ brooms. Idea!_

And so, Remus decided that he'd better borrow a broom and fly up to the castle, rather than risk hypothermia. Luckily for him, Geeta's broom had been conveniently forgotten on a bench, so he took it and attempted to fly his sore, beaten body towards the hospital wing. As he flew, holding the woolen robe close to his body in a vain attempt to keep the wind out, he tried hard to remember what had happened the night before. He figured that he must have been clobbered on the head somehow (it was the only explanation for his headache and inability to remember anything) but that _didn't_ explain why he had been in the change room. With a bit more thought, Remus also managed to recall that his friends hadn't been with him the night before; he'd transformed all alone.

Or had he? Merlin, if he could only remember. What if… what if someone had seen him? What if someone got _hurt_?

Finally, Remus arrived at the castle, and somehow he dragged himself to the hospital wing. The minute he entered it, he was practically attacked by a panicking Madam Pomphrey:

"Oh my goodness! Oh goodness gracious! What in the name of the Chudley Cannons happened to you this time, dear boy! Oh, you poor little darling, you look like death!"

Remus, who was honestly too tired to pay any attention to her, just continued walking to his usual bed, and proceeded to plop down into it and shut his good eye.

"I should get you something for that bump on your head...", Pmphrey continued, "I'll be right back dear... actually, I'd better fix that eye of yours before you loose your sight altogether! Here, now sit up and look at me please, Remus."

She held out her wand and waited for him to sit up and obey her; but he made no efforts whatsoever to do so. He was too fast asleep.

*""*

Remus was still asleep a few hours later when James skipped lunch to come down and visit him. The bespectacled boy walked in alone, but he came bearing a bar of the werewolf's favorite Honeydukes chocolate. He came in with a lazy grin on his face, but it melted into shock when James arrived at Remus' bedside.

His friend was a mess. His right eyelid had swelled up gruesomely, his head had been heavily bandaged and he had numerous other bandages all over his body which were starting to stain red. And, of course, this was all on top of his usual re-opened scars, paleness and overall ill health.

Sitting down on a chair by the bed, James dropped the candy on Remus' nightstand and took his hand, "What the diddle happened to you last night, mate?"

Just then James heard another Marauder enter the room. Looking up, James found himself locking eyes with Sirius Black.

Wordlessly, Sirius sat down on the opposite side of the bed to James and threw another chocolate bar on Remus' nightstand. Eying Remus, he turned to James, "He looks awful", he whispered.

James nodded at his friend, "I know. What happened to him last night?"

Here Sirius shot James a confused look, "I don't know, what _did_ happen to him?"

Now James was perplexed, "What d'you mean, _you're _the one who was there."

Sirius paled, "No, James. I _wasn't_ there… "

James swallowed hard, "_What_?"

"I wasn't with him last night," Sirius said slowly, "I was with Heather. Didn't you get my letter? The one telling you that I'd be busy last night?"

"_What_ letter?" James spoke irritably, "You didn't send me any letter."

Sirius groaned, "_Yes_ I _did_. But what about you? You didn't bother telling _me_ that you'd be away."

Huffing impatiently, James shook his head, "I had a _patrol_ scheduled last night. It was the fifth day of the month, remember?"

Sirius rolled his eyes, "Oh, _pardon me_ for not having memorized your schedule Mr. Head Boy. But I still don't see why you would choose to go on a _patrol_ instead of being there for a friend." Here Sirius pretended to think, scratching his head. Then he snapped his fingers as if he remembered something, "Hang on, you were with dear _Evans_ again last night, weren't you? Merlin, I don't know what's happened to your priorities."

"Hey!" James growled back, so loudly that it caused a sleeping patient a few beds over to awaken with a start, "What about you, then? You just said that you were with that Heather girl last night; how is that any different?"

Sirius's expression hardened, "It was the first time she let me see her since the break ended."

Now it was James' turn to roll his eyes. See, he didn't know that Heather had been practically avoiding Sirius since the break had ended, or that Sirius had almost begun to believe that the girl he loved had gotten over him. Then, Sirius had received a letter instructing him to meet her at the greenhouses, and he knew that he couldn't miss the opportunity. When he'd arrived, she'd flown at him and held him tight, explaining that she couldn't let any of the other Slytherins find out about them, _and_ that they'd only be able to meet in secret. He told her that he didn't mind, so long as she still cared for him.

As James didn't know this, though, he only laughed scathingly, "Sirius, it's only been _three days _since the holls ended. You're even worse than I am. And because of you, Moony got hurt last night. He was _alone_."

"Look." Sirius spat, "I sent you a bleeding _letter_. I would never abandon… Remus!"

The werewolf had started coughing, and then the jerking motion his head made caused him to clutch at his forehead. Finally, he opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was his two best friends staring at him worriedly.

"Well," Remus croaked, rubbing his eyes (the right one was still swollen, but he could open it slightly now)"Look who decided to show up."

His tone wasn't angry - although both James and Sirius agreed that he had _every_ right to be furious with them- it was only weary, and slightly grateful that they were there for him now at least.

Looking at the pathetic state Remus was in, Sirius bit his lip. James ran a hand through his hair. For once, neither of them could think of a single thing to say; neither of them had the words to express how ashamed of themselves they were. Remus, seeing their distress, smiled weakly at them, "What, did I rip out your tongues when you found me last night?"

James and Sirius spoke in unison, "What?"

Remus blinked, "You mean, it _wasn't_ you guys and Peter that found me?"

The two boys shook their heads.

"But", Remus sputtered, "How did I end up alone in the Quidditch change rooms then? Someone _must_have led me there; my canine's first impulse would have been to go to the forest where there's food… not to a building! And someone knocked me out too… Oh Merlin, what _happened_ last night?"

James's thoughts instantly turned from Sirius to calming Remus down, "Hey, hey, relax Moony. You were probably found by a professor; who else would have knocked you out and then moved you to a safe location where no one else would find you?"

Remus's breathing slowed down, "Yeah… that makes sense. But what if it wasn't? Oh Merlin, oh _Merlin_…"

Sirius, for his part, frowned, "Wait, did you say that you were _all_ alone; not even Peter was there with you?"

Remus nodded slowly, careful not to make any sudden movements and worsen his pain, "Yes. I reckon he realized that you two were away, and got too scared to come."

Just then, the bell signaling the end of lunch sounded. James and Sirius got up to leave, but just before they did, they both turned to look at their lunarly challenged friend one more time, "You'll be alright, then?" Sirius asked quietly.

Remus grinned, "It takes more than a few broken bones, a concussion, numerous deep wounds and a swollen eye to get me down; I mean, I put up with _you two_ on a regular basis."

Sirius pouted sadly, muttering "_Ouch_", and James smiled. "Are you _sure_ you'll be fine?"

"Don't worry," Remus reassured him, "I'll be back in class by tomorrow. I just _wish_ that I knew what happened last night. I've got this horrible feeling that I… never mind. But guys?"

"Yeah?"

For the first time that day, Remus looked at them with a glimmer of anger in his blue eyes, "Never, _ever_ do that without warning me again."

The other two Marauders nodded sincerely, then hurried to their respective classes.


	18. More Consequences

It was only after James and Sirius left that Remus really began to wonder about Peter. His slightly less than heroic friend was a bit of a coward, but even if he'd been too afraid to _help_ Remus cope with his problems alone, he could have at _least_ opened the passage to the shrieking shack for him. Or he could have gotten some help from the others…

_Aw, Peter, if __only__ you'd opened that passage… you could have run away right after! I probably wouldn't have even bothered about a rat._

Little did Remus know that Peter hadn't stayed away from fright at all. He'd had a previous engagement, you see. One that had been made over the break with a certain vengeful Slytherin…

*""*

It was getting late. In fact, it had already been one hour since the time he had told Peter to show up to the Slytherin meeting. Many of the other Slytherin students were starting to get very edgy. They were holding their meeting after hours in the spare potions room, and any minute they could get caught by a teacher or patrol. Besides, many of them were certain that the plump Gryffindor boy wasn't even going to show up.

Still, Severus Snape wasn't worried. Not in the least. See, he had seen a certain... _gleam_ in Peter's eyes when he'd praised him. It was a gleam of hope, of pride, and ofgreed; he wanted power. No, he thirsted power, and he wanted to have some to hold over his steller friends.

He'd show up. Snape was all but certain.

And he wasn't disappointed. About five minutes later, a quiet shuffling noise could be heard in the hallway. Then, a round, ratlike face appeared peeping apprehensively in the door. Pettigrew looked afraid; he had the impish look that children have when they know that what they are doing is wrong, _and_ that they might get into trouble for it later. That didn't matter, though. What mattered was that he had come at all.

He entered the room shyly, then looked at the Slytherin students around him. Today they looked friendly enough, even though they'd spent a good part of the last six years antagonizing him.

"Well", Snape began softly, "Welcome to all of you. Especially to you, Peter Pettigrew. We are _so_ glad you could make it to our little get together."

Peter acknowledged this with an stiff nod, while slowly edging away from where Bellatrix was seated; she was eying him the way spiders eye their trapped prey. In the end, he chose a seat in a lonely corner, far from the more menacing Slytherins.

"Now I'm sure that you are all wondering what we are doing here today," Snape continued in a quiet voice which somehow carried strongly throughout the cold room, "So let us begin. As you know, every single wizard and witch in this room is special; _superior_ to the rest of the Hogwarts crowd. We are the people of the future; the rest simply aren't good enough to make it through this age. This is the age of cleansing."

He paused to look around significantly, trying to persuade them all to believe Voldemort's message of hatred and false pride. Trying, and very much succeeding, to convince them of what he himself would never believe. And, if he was completely honest with himself, the only real reason why he would never believe what he preached lay in the form of a girl. A mudblood girl who was, in his eyes, superior to everyone he'd ever met.

Nonetheless, when he'd finished speaking, most of the room, including Peter Pettigrew, applauded loudly. They ate it all up. So, Severus continued to spew the lies, buttering the crowd up further and further until they were ready for the grand finale. The whole point of this meeting had been to arrive at this point.

It was Mulcibre who first brought it up, "Alright, that's enough of that, Snape. Let's move on. Now, as you know, our Lord has decided to induct me and a few others into his group of elites as soon as we leave Hogwarts. But in order to ensure that that happens, we are going to need to prove our loyalty to him."

Peter, whose skin had begun crawling the minute they had brought Voldemort, almost shivered visibly at the boy's words. Then, with great effort, he managed to speak up, "What d-do you mean?"

Snape realized that it was too early to inform Peter of the scope of their plans, for fear he'd rat them out, so he cut in: "We just mean that we need to leave Hogwarts a message of warning. We need to tell them who we are and what we can do."

His vague words somehow comforted Peter, and he relaxed, "Oh. I guess that's not so bad..."

The rest of the meeting comprised mostly of complaining about how they were still stuck in school and couldn't be of any real use to the Dark Lord, and praising themselves still more. Then, to Snape's horror, someone began the usual Gryffindor bashing their meetings comprised of, and everyone joined in. Everyone was fed up of the golden trio of Marauders; how they caused so much trouble, were _so_ egotistical and yet they still managed to get all of the girls, the best grades and the love of the school. What was more, they were all blood traitors.

Snape had been about to put an abrupt end to the topic, because he knew that nothing would turn Peter away from them faster, when the plump boy's voice rose above the crowds; "That's nothing. Sirius is so vain that he carries a brush, comb and mirror around with him _everywhere_. And James is so bratty that he has trouble realizing that we weren't all placed on this Earth only to please him!"

The other students laughed and Snape, after his initial suprise wore off, smiled widely; the transformation was complete.

*""*

"Is she awake yet?"

"Nope."

"Did you see all of those _bruises_she's got? And she's still in her Quidditch gear…"

"I know, Alice."

"But I don't understand how this could have….wait a second… last night was a full moon! Merlin's _beard_, Lily, you don't think that – "

"Yes, I do." The redhead spoke in a very matter of fact tone, though her heart was pounding. If her hunch was right, then Geeta had just been attacked by a werewolf and survived. Moreover, the attack must have lasted a long time, because when she'd gotten back from patrol at about midnight, Geeta had still been out. Just then, both she and Alice saw Geeta's eyes flutter open.

"What time is it?" She asked, sitting up, "Are we going to be late?"

Alice ignored her, "Geeta, are you alright?"

Geeta was tired but her mind was already wide awake. Her expression turned guarded as she replied, "Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

"But last night, didn't you –"

"I pushed myself a bit too hard practicing." Geeta said decisively, "That's all."

Alice locked eyes with Lily, and the latter shook her head slightly, as if to say _just drop it._

Lily perceived that Geeta didn't want anyone to know what had happened to her the night before, so she figured that it must have been something terrible. She likely didn't want her friends to worry. Or perhaps she was only trying to forget about it herself. At any rate, Lily decided that the best course of action was to simply act normal:

"Alright, Geets, relax. Now, hurry up or we'll be late for our _first class_, let alone breakfast."

Geeta smiled thankfully at her friend, and then pulled herself out of bed. But as she brushed her teeth and washed her face, memories of the previous night flashed through her mind like a vivid nightmare. The beast's penetrating yellow glare and dripping fangs haunted her, and she fancied that she could hear its low, bloodcurdling growl coming from right outside of the bathroom door… If she opened it, it would leap at her and sink its jaws into her throat while slicing her flesh with its claws…

_No, __stop__. You're being ridiculous…_

Attempting to banish her fears, Geeta opened the door and saw only her friends getting ready as well. Her paranoia stayed with her throughout the day, though; no matter where she was.

Lily watched her carefully, and tried to help her as best she could, but she knew that her friend would have to get over this one on her own. Geeta's behavior reminded her strongly of herself a few summers ago, when she'd watched a particularly frightening muggle horror film with her family. For days afterwords she'd seen demons and freakish ghouls in every shadow, and she'd slept with her wand beside her; just in case.

Still, Lily and Alice only realized the true extent of the problem when Geeta chose not to visit Remus in the hospital wing at lunch. She was obviously too scared; of what Lily wasn't entirely sure, but she hoped with all of her heart that it wouldn't last.

The true reason why Geeta didn't want to visit her boyfriend though wasn't from fear of _him_, it was from fear of how she'd react to _seeing_ him. Now that she'd seen his other self, she wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to look at Remus the same way again.


	19. A Little Chat

"Remus, dear, do you think that you are well enough to see another visitor?"

Opening one eye to look at the concerned mediwitch who stood by his hospital bed, Remus replied, "That depends… who's the visitor?"

Here Madam Pomphrey gave Remus one of her trademark warm and kindly smiles, "It's a very pretty young lady."

Remus opened both of his eyes at this, and grinned at the matronly woman, "Well, I can't very well say no to that, can I? Please let her in to see me. But first could you, er… could you please help me sit up?"

She chuckled slightly at his Marauder-esque reluctance to ask for help, "Of course". Then she carefully propped Remus up on his pillow, and hurried off to let hiss visitor in.

Remus, for his part, made himself as comfortable as he could, and pushed the curtain by his bed back so that he could look at the entrance of the hospital wing with some more clarity. Smiling softly, as he always did when he thought of Geeta, he watched as Madam Pomphrey re-entered the room, and behind her entered…

_Wait… what?_

There, behind Madam Pomphrey was not the girl Remus had been expecting. Nope, this girl had fiery red hair, emerald eyes, and her nervous expression spelt trouble.

*""*

Lily still wasn't entirely sure that she'd made the correct decision in coming to see Remus, but she wasn't sure what else she could do. Geeta still hadn't admitted what had happened to her, and her naturally curious and caring nature had to have the whole story. Moreover, Lily simply wanted to make sure that Remus was feeling alright: both physically and mentally. So, she banished her nerves and tried her best to look cheerful.

"Hey Remus!" She called out gaily as she approached his bed, "Glad to see that you're awake."

Remus eyed her dubiously as she slid into the chair by his bed, still wondering why it was her and not his girlfriend that was visiting him, "Er, hi Lily."

"Well, don't you sound absolutely thrilled to see me." She muttered dryly.

Remus laughed, "I am glad to see you, truly. It's just that I wasn't expecting you."

Lily shrugged, "I didn't predict coming here either; but I needed to talk to you."

"Regarding?"

Here Lily hesitated, "Well, you know…"

Remus's eyes went wide, "I _do_? How wonderful!"

Lily rolled her eyes, "_Stow it_, Moony, you know what I'm talking about." She really didn't have time for joking around.

This caused Remus's eyes to go even wider. Then, to Lily's surprise, he threw back his head and laughed gleefully at her.

"Remus? What the _diddle_ are you doing?"

_Oh Merlin, the pressure's finally gotten to him! I knew that he was too calm and serene to be a werewolf: the animal inside has finally been set free! It's Remus UNLEASHED!_

Still panting from laughter, he answered her, "Lily, you called me _Moony_. And then you told me to _stow it_."

Lily frowned, "So?"

"So," Remus replied happily, "I'm laughing because it's funny that the perfect, always polite and prim Head Girl has actually started talking like James Potter."

Lily's emerald orbs went wide with realization. Then, with a mischievous sparkle in her eye, she proceeded to wrinkle her nose with disapproval, "Me? Talk like _Potter_? There is no way on _Earth_ that I'd stoop so low!" The corner of Remus's mouth twitched against his will as he watched her: he could remember a time, not so long ago, when Lily had actually felt that way about his friend.

"I mean," Lily continued, "he's arrogant, lazy, a no-good _trouble maker_ and… and–"

"And you're madly in love with him?" Remus suggested innocently.

"And I'm madly in love with him." Lily agreed, her pretend scowl turning into a contented smile.

"Speaking of love," Remus spoke barely above a whisper, "Why didn't Geeta come with you? I'd… sort of been hoping to see her."

_What? Sweet diddle, don't you realize that she's too afraid to come? Merlin, and I thought that you were the considerate one…_

_Wait a second… he __is__ the considerate one! That must mean -_

Lily's smile faltered as she realized her mistake: she could see clearly from his expression that Remus didn't have a clue about what had happened between him and Geeta the night before.

Unfortunately for Lily, though, Remus was just as good at reading eyes as she was, and when he looked into hers he saw her thoughts clear as day. And that was when he remembered. The events of the previous night all came rushing back, flying through his head like some twisted nightmare, and he let out a cry.

"Oh, Lily… tell me I didn't!"

She remained silent, not sure what to do, and watched as Remus's features twisted into a look of pure horror.

"What the bloody _hell_? Why didn't anyone… oh, son of a _banshee_ no! Bugger, bugger, bugger, diddle _bugger_!"

He continued spewing out profanities like this for a while, his face buried in his hands, and then he finally looked up at Lily, who was frozen to her chair, "Please, tell me that she's alright at least."

Lily forced a smile, "She's fine. She's absolutely fine."

"But she's never going to talk to me again."

"No! I mean, of course she will."

"Then why isn't she here?"

Lily bit her lip, "She's afraid."

Remus closed his eyes, "Oh. Well, I suppose I can hardly blame her for that. Merlin, I just _knew_ that this would happen; that it was too good to be true. I shouldn't have agreed to date her; I should have listened to my instincts and stayed alone…"

Lily felt her heart break as she looked at his miserable, battered figure. She couldn't think of anyone who deserved love more than him, so she put a hand on his arm, "Remus, don't say that. And don't worry, it'll all work out in the end, I know it. Geeta loves you, she honestly does, and she's not going to give up on you this easily."

Remus locked eyes with Lily, "I don't know if you actually mean that, or if you're only trying to make me feel better. But I do hope, with all of my heart, that you're right."

*""*

By the end of the day, Remus had finally managed to convince Madam Pomphrey that he was well enough to leave the hospital wing. She was very reluctant to see him go, though, and made him swear to come back in the morning so that she could perform one last check to ensure that his injuries were healing properly.

Remus agreed to do so to keep her happy, but he was quite sure that he would be healthy as a horse in no time. So, he grabbed his things and trudged back to the Gryffindor Common room, ignoring the stares that several students shot him because of his scars.

When he reached the common room, he found the Fat Lady already fast asleep, with a telling empty wine glass in the corner of her frame.

"Erm, Fat Lady…" Remus called out to her softly, could you please wake up?"

She stirred, and then opened one eye irritably, "Oh, it's _you_. Do you have _any_ idea how late it is?" Remus, who'd lost all track of time whilst he'd been snoozing in the Hospital wing, shook his head.

"Well then," she huffed, "I'll tell you: it's 11:00, _pm_. So, hurry up and tell me the password so that I can let you in and _go back to sleep_!"

"Er, wasn't the password… Uruk hai?"

The Fat Lady frowned at him, "No, not anymore it isn't."

"When'd it change?"

"At precisely 6:30 am, this morning."

Remus sighed, "In that case, I suppose I don't know it, as I've been in the hospital wing for three days."

She quirked a brow, "What's your point, boy?"

Remus blinked, "Well, seeing as you _do_ know me, and I _don't_ know the password, will you tell me what it is?"

"No."

"Will you let me in, at least?"

"Hmmm, seeing as you so _rudely_ awakened me during a _particularly_ lovely dream… no."

"But I _didn't_ wake you up merely to annoy you," Remus pointed out, "I just wanted to go to sleep myself!"

"Go to sleep then, _I'm_ not stopping you," The Fat Lady returned cheekily. And with that, she promptly closed her own eyes as if to exemplify what she was talking about, and refused to respond to anything else he said.

Just as Remus was about storm off back to his bed at the hospital wing, he heard footsteps approaching from down the hall. He turned to see who it was, and even though the hallway was dimly lit he recognized the figure immediately: apparently she'd been out for some extra Quidditch practice again.

*""*

Geeta, still tired from practice approached the entrance to the common room in a complete daze. Mechanically, she passed whomever it was that was stuck outside of the common room, and spoke the password to the seemingly asleep Fat Lady (it was Carpe Retractum). The portrait swung aside, and Geeta marched in, followed by the dimwit who'd forgotten the password.

When she entered the Common room, she instantly spotted her mates sitting in their usual corner, and walked up to join them. She'd just fallen into conversation with them about the finishing touches of their Transfiguration project, when the boy who'd been behind her walked by. He muttered a small, "Thanks for getting the Fat Lady to let me in", and then continued up to the boy's dorms.

At the sound of his voice, Geeta's heart started pounding faster. She turned around to look at him, but he had already gone up to the Boy's dorms.


	20. Tension

Tactfully deciding to ignore that Geeta was still staring after Remus, at the entrance of the Boy's dormitories, Lily changed the subject, "So anyways, how did Quidditch practice go, Geeta?"

The Indian girl didn't even turn to face Lily; she simply kept on staring off with a gossamer thin crease between her brows.

"Geeta?"

She still didn't respond, and Alice decided that she'd had quite enough of her moping: "Geeta! You listen to me right this minute or you'll sorely regret it."

It was very rarely that Alice was stern with anyone, so Geeta snapped out of her reverie and looked at her friend with wide eyes: as if she'd only just registered that Alice was even there. "What?"

"Look Geeta," Alice started, "I _don't_ know exactly what happened to you that night – and don't you pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about, because I know diddle well that you do – but I _do_ know that whatever it was, you've got to put it right this very minute!"

"Put it right? How can I possibly do that?"

Alice set her jaw, "It's easy, you've just got to go up there and talk to him."

Geeta started to look panicked, "Alice, you don't understand… I –"

"I understand perfectly, Geeeta," Alice interrupted, "You're scared. But there's something you should know before you give up on him forever."

"And what's that?"

Alice looked her friend straight in the eye, "Just now, when Remus thanked you for letting him in, you weren't facing him, so you didn't see the look on his face. But Geets, I did. And do you know what I saw? I saw a bloke who'd completely given up. He's resigned himself to being alone forever, Lily told me so herself."

Geeta frowned, "Lily? But how did she – "

"That doesn't matter, Geeta! What matters is that you've got to tell Remus what you feel. Now."

Geeta blinked.

_What I feel? But Merlin, how can I tell him how I feel when __I__ don't even know what I feel yet?_

But still, Geeta knew that Alice was right: she had to go and talk to him. So, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she got out of her seat and made her way up the winding staircase to the boy's dorms.

*""*

Not long after she'd left, the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team arrived back from practice. They'd been training hard because it was crunch time now: their second match was against Ravenclaw, who had a killer team of veteran players.

The team arrived in a large group, and all of them settled in the couches by the fire (after clearing out the gaggle of first year girls who had been sitting their first). The only member of the team not accounted for was Sirius, but it was generally known that he would likely be with his mysterious Slytherin girlfriend. As for James, he soon excused himself from the team to talk to Lily. At his approach, Alice discreetly excused herself from her friend, so that the two of them could have some privacy in the corner.

"So," James said with a small grin as he settled into his seat, "How's everyone's favorite know-it-all been doing?"

Lily allowed herself a smile, "I'm alright, but I've certainly been better…"

James grinned even more widely, "How's that possible: _I'm_ sitting across from you. You'd be hard pressed to find something better than _that_."

Lily laughed, "That's true, but I'm sure I can think of _something_…. hang on, I've got it - _not_ having you sitting across from me."

"Oh, you're just jealous of my magnificence," James crowed happily.

Giving in, Lily sighed, "Yup, that's _me_ all figured out, James. I'm just jealous of you."

Letting out a snicker, James rolled his eyes, "_That_, dear Evans, was pathetic. Even for you. And here I used to think you had clever comebacks…"

"I _did_," Lily bemoaned ruefully, "But I'm a bit out of practice, see, from not having anyone to argue with anymore. It's the _only_ downside of having you as a boyfriend."

"There's only one?" James was ecstatic.

Realizing her mistake, Lily corrected herself, "Oops, sorry… I meant to say that it was the _main_ downside of having you as a boyfriend: there are several others, don't you worry."

James raised a brow, "Such as?"

"Well," Lily started, "Your _irritatingly_ under the impression that you're much funnier than you are, your hair refuses to do anything but what it feels like doing, _and_ when you're the girlfriend of James Potter, the entire school _has_ to know exactly what he snogs like, how far you've gotten with him, and seven girls have asked me if I could get you to help set them up with the other Marauders."

James's eyes went wide, "Really? _Blimey_, do girls really do that?"

Lily nodded, "Yes, in fact, they do. And most of the girls bugging me now would never have spoken to me before… it's _entirely_ your fault."

James blinked, then laughed, "Diddle… it's a wonder you're still putting up with me after all of that!"

Now it was Lily's turn to grin, "No, that's not true. The benefits of our arrangement definitely outweigh the negatives in this case."

The corners of James's mouth twitched, "_Benefits_? Dear Lily, what ever do you mean?"

She blushed, "Oh, shut up and come over here."

And with that they both leaned in, and James cupped her face in his hands, gently pressing his lips against hers. It was a soft, lingering kiss, and he pulled back from her so slowly that Lily couldn't hardly tell when contact broke and the magic ended. Then she smiled at him, "It's been too long since we last did that."

He heartily agreed, brushing a stray strand of hair of her face, and was about to kiss her again, when they both heard the Common room door swing open and turned to see who it was.

It was Sirius; he had come to drop off his books.

Lily's gaze passed over him briefly before turning back to James, but his eyes remained fixed on his friend. Lily could tell from the way that James's jaw had clenched up that he and Sirius had been fighting again, and she decided that things had gone on for long enough

"James?"

He turned back to her with a jerk, "What? Oh, sorry Lily, I just got distracted…"

She smiled sympathetically, "I know. Well, actually I _don't_ know: you never did tell me what the argument was about."

"What argument?"

"_James_. Don't play that game with me."

He sighed heavily, "Look, Lily, didn't I tell you to drop it? Now, where were we?"

He leaned in the kiss her again, but she backed away, "_No_, James, I won't just drop it and snog you like a mindless hussy: I've _got_ to know what's going on."

Now James was getting irritated, "Why? Why is it _any_ of your business? This is purely between me and him!"

Lily frowned, "No, it isn't. I care for you, and this is bothering you: that makes it my business."

"For the last time, Evans, you're my girlfriend, not my diddle _mother_!"

"So you're saying that you want me to be there for the _benefits_, but when it comes to your actual life I'm to stay out? Potter, I _don't_ operate that way."

"That's not what I'm saying at all, Lily, I just can't tell you what this fight's about!"

His voice had gotten rather loud by this point, and if the two of them had been a little less absorbed in each other, they would have noticed that a good portion of the Common room had started to watch them. But they _were_ absorbed, and for a moment, the outside world had ceased to matter.

"Why not!" Lily's voice was harsh, "_Why_ can't you tell me?"

"I just… can't alright. Isn't that enough?"

Then Lily's eyes went wide with realization, "This fight isn't about… _me_ is it?"

Suddenly, James was vexed beyond belief with his girlfriend. He said nothing.

"Oh my gosh, it is!" Lily exclaimed, "I can't believe it… he was telling the_ truth…_"

James's gaze shot up at her, his hazel eyes smoldering with a restrained fury, "_Who_ was telling the truth?"

Lily shook her head, "It doesn't matter, the point is, I'm _right_ aren't I? You're not telling me what the fight is about because it involves me."

The almost triumphant look in her eyes was the last straw; she didn't understand at all. So James snapped.

"_Loo_k, Lily, this may come as a complete shock to you, but not _every_ bloody thing that happens in my life _has_ to revolve around _you_. Alright?

His voice was laced with menace and his words were aimed to wound. They hit their mark, too: Lily looked as if she had been slapped. James had only seen her wear this expression once before, and that was several months ago, when he had called her the most stuck-up person at Hogwarts. The only difference was, that time she had completely deserved to be rebuked. This time, all she'd wanted to do was help him feel better, and he'd practically jumped down her throat.

Biting her lip, Lily was silent for a while, the hurt in her eyes speaking for her. Then she whispered, "Alright, James. I'm sorry I bothered you."

With that, she got up and dazedly made her way to the Girls Dormitories, with much of the Common Room staring after her.

This was because, if James Potter and Lily Evans finally getting together had been the best gossip ever to be told at Hogwarts, then them starting to break up had to be even bigger news.


	21. Neat and Organized

Alright, guys, here's a longer chapter... and it's an important one too! It's the beginning of the end, in a sense, and it really gets the ball rolling. Enjoy =]

*""*

Geeta climbed up the stairs to the boy's dorms silently but determinedly, but when she reached the door she found herself unable to move. After a few moments of uncertainty, she took a deep breath and turned the handle, peeking in to make sure that Remus was alone.

She couldn't see anyone at all. So, she let herself in and called out to him, "Remus?"

As Geeta hadn't been expecting anyone to respond, she felt an immense relief when he emerged from the dorm's bathroom, comb in hand.

She exhaled, not remembering when she'd started holding her breath, "Oh, thank goodness you're here: I almost…"

But she trailed off as he got closer and she had a chance to look at him properly for the first time.

Remus, who had been preparing for bed, was shirt-less with a pair of worn jeans and fuzzy purple socks. And Merlin, how had Geeta ever failed to realize how… _well built_ he was? He was thin, but he had muscle in all the right places, and as for his perfectly chiseled front – _oh_ diddle…

Noticing that Geeta was staring at him, Remus broke the silence, "Geeta?"

She blushed, looking up at his face, "Er, sorry… I just –"

"It's alright," Remus interrupted, "The scars… I know they're awful."

Geeta felt her blush intensify, but the corners of her mouth turned up, "That's not what I was going to say at all, Remus."

He was confused for a moment, "What? Then _why_ were you staring at… _oh_!" Despite himself, Remus almost laughed when he realized what his girlfriend had been ogling:

"Well, you're looking at one of the few benefits of my furry little problem", he said with a wry smile, "it's practically impossible for me to gain fat or lose muscle, because once a month I get this crazy workout…"

Geeta laughed, "Believe me, I _know_. And what do you mean _one_ of the benefits? Are there others?"

Remus shrugged, "Sort of. I can hear much better than most people, I can eat pretty much as much as I want without having to worry about it affecting my health, and I can…. Well, I can smell you from about half a mile away."

"_What_?"

"Er, it's a good smell," Remus said hastily, realizing his mistake, "It's smeels like... freshly baked spice cookies, or a warm summer breeze. It's good; trust me."

Geeta smiled, "I do. But that's not what I came here to talk to you about…"

Remus nodded, "I know." Then he sat down on his bed and waited for her to continue.

Swallowing, Geeta sat down too, "It's about... that night. When you… er, when I…"

Remus smiled softly, realizing that to any outsider, Geeta's hesitance to bring up _that night_ would be interpreted very differently. But he knew exactly what she was talking about, "What about that night?"

Geeta gulped again, looking anywhere but into Remus's intense blue gaze. "Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is…"

She paused, groping for words. What exactly was she trying to say anyway? She looked around the room searchingly, as if hoping that the answer to her problems would be posted up on the dorm wall, but she saw nothing… Only several robes strewn messily across the room's other unmade beds, several posters of Quidditch teams, and by Sirius's bed, of motorcycles and muggle models. There were also books, socks and papers lying haphazardly on night tables and the candy wrapper and quill littered floor… in fact the entire room was a mess except for in Remus's little corner. His bed was made, his books and papers were in a neat stack on his bedside table, and his clothes were all out of sight (except, of course, for the shirt he was holding).

Geeta had always found his abnormal organization irritating: it contrasted too much with her own it's- a- mess- but- I- know-where- everything- is attitude. But now she realized that she actually loved his neatness. She loved that he worried constantly about his grades, and she loved that he couldn't hurt a fly (excepting a certain time of month, that was). In short, as Geeta looked around that messy boy's dormitory, she finally realized that –

"What I'm trying to say is that… I love you, Remus."

The boy felt his jaw drop open, and he found himself gaping at the Indian girl. Whatever he had been expecting her to say, that had _not_ been it. "You… do?"

Finally turning back to look him straight in the eye, Geeta nodded. "Yes, I do."

Eyes wide as headlights, Remus blinked, "But, I mean… how can you say that after what happened?"

The answer to this question came to Geeta without her even having to think about it: "Because it's _always_ been you, Remus, and it still is. Because when I see myself in the future… after Hogwarts… when I'm out there fighting You-know-who and his forces with _everything_ I've got… well, the image is never complete unless I can see you fighting beside me."

Taking a deep breath, and letting her words sink in, Geeta continued, "Remus, werewolf or not, I feel _so_ much safer when you're with me. And you take such good care of me all of the time, and you put up with my crazy moods… _and_ you love me. As far as I'm concerned, I'm the luckiest girl in the castle."

Remus couldn't believe his ears. In his wildest dreams he had never imagined that she'd still love him after the incident: at best he'd been hoping that she'd forgive him and slowly start talking to him again. So, he smiled and took her hand, "And I'm the luckiest werewolf in the castle."

Geeta snorted, "You're the _only_ werewolf in the castle, Einstein."

He rolled his eyes, "And just like that, she ruined a beautiful moment."

She grinned, reaching up to ruffle his normally neat hair: "Don't worry it's still salvageable."

Seeming not to hear her, Remus attempted to finger-comb his hair off of his forehead and into place, "Why'd you mess up my hair?"

"It looks sexier this way," she smirked.

Remus let his hand fall back down, "I see. And _why_ do you need my hair to look sexy?"

Geeta grinned wickedly and leaned in to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, "For this…"

Remus raised an eyebrow at her, but he leaned in as well and gave her what she later described as, "The best kiss of my life… it was soft but desperate and breathtaking. It was like one of those 'true love's kiss things', you know? I could feel real emotion there, and it was beautiful."

*""*

After Lily left the Common room, James became aware of the many pairs of eyes which were glued to the back of his head. He turned to see whom it was that was staring at him, and managed to catch at least five different heads whipping about to look casually elsewhere.

Sighing deeply, he decided that the only place for him to go if he wanted any peace, was up to his dorm. So, James pulled on his book bag and headed up the long and winding stairs. He climbed mechanically, barely aware of his own actions and weighed down by a guilty conscience and miserable heart… And all the while, he couldn't erase the image of Lily's hurt expression from his mind.

When he reached the top of the steps, he practically fell on the door to his dorm, pushing it open with a loud _squeak. _However, the noise was _not_ loud enough to disturb the couple that James found embracing inside.

They were the first thing James saw when he looked into his dorm, and he instantly felt as if he were intruding on a moment which was too precious to ruin. He was about to close the door again when he realized that something was different about the scene than he would have expected: Remus Lupin had Geeta pressed up against one of the posts of his four- poster bed, and he was both shirtless _and_ messy haired.

_What the diddle?_

But Remus was clearly too lost in the kiss to care what he looked like. For some reason, this made James's already foul mood even worse. Here he was in his time of need, and the one friend he thought he could count on was too busy making out with his girlfriend to care.

_James, you're being ridiculous. If Remus was aware that you needed him, he'd do anything he could to help you. Beside, his need's greater than yours at the moment._

_Oh shut up! __Why__ do you have to be so damn good all the time?_

_Because._

_Oh. I see._

Realizing that any minute Remus and Geeta could break apart and notice him, James shook his head to remove his unhelpful thoughts and closed the door. As he descended back to the Common room, he decided to spend the remainder of the evening with Peter. After all, it'd been a while since he'd last spent any time with his pudgy friend, and really, who else was there for him to turn to?

But James received the shock of his life when he sat down on the couch next to Peter with a friendly, "Hey Wormtail, mind if I join you?"

Peter responded by slamming the book he'd been looking at shut and narrowing his beady eyes icily at his friend, "Who, _me_? Why would _I_ mind?"

Taken aback, James didn't know what to say. "Wh -what are you on about, Peter?" He spluttered.

"Nothing at all, _Prongs_. I was just curious about why you want to sit beside _me_, of all people. Don't you have _anyone_ else to talk to?"

Finally comprehending that Peter had been feeling ignored, James sighed, "Peter, It's not like that. I've just been really busy with… things."

Peter looked back down at the passage he'd been attempting to annotate, "Oh."

So saying, he proceeded to ignore James completely. So, James let out yet another sigh and pulled some work out of his own book bag to do. And when he did, he noticed a small envelope fall out of his bag and onto the room's scarlet rug. "What the diddle?"

Frowning, he picked it up and turned it over in his hands. It only took one look at the way the sender had quickly but neatly penned his name to know who the letter was from.

James tore open the envelope and read the following letter:

_Hey Prongs!_

_Padfoot again, and I want you to know that when I got up this morning, I was feeling even __sorrier__ than I was yesterday, if possible. No really! I am wallowing in a disgusting, smelly and sticky sea of remorse, and every day the sea becomes deeper with the addition of my tears… (alright, you've __got __to admit that the bit about the tears was pretty clever. I mean, it's practically diddle poetry!)_

_Anyway, I'm just writing to tell you that I'm not gonna be able to go with you guys to our… monthly gathering, let's call it. I've promised to meet Heather and no matter how much I love you guys, I can't miss this meeting. You know Prongs… I think I love her. I really mean it too: it's not just because she's hot, or because she's a wonderful person… it's just something I feel. And mate, if this is how you felt about Evans, then I was wrong to mess with that – dead wrong._

_Well, that's all I guess. I was a slimy git for doing what I did, but please try to forgive me._

_Padfoot._

James had to read the letter three times over in order to believe his eyes. _Sirius had been telling the truth!_ He _had_ given James a letter before the Remus incident, to tell him that he wouldn't be able to come. Then why hadn't James ever read…

_Oh DIDDLE!_

Thinking back, James suddenly realized why he hadn't known about the letter. Idiot that he was, when he had found it on his nightstand the morning before the full moon, he had just assumed that it was another one of Sirius's apology letters and decided not to bother reading it. Instead had stuffed it into his book bag and forgotten all about it.

He was such an idiot! A stupid, _stupid_ idiot. And a git too; after all, he hadn't given anyone any warning that _he_ would be away on the full moon, had he? And then he'd lashed out at Sirius and renewed their fight. Then, in frustration, he'd lashed out at Lily. Gosh darn it all, what the _diddle_ had he been thinking?

James let out a heavy sigh: there was only one thing for it. Packing his bag yet again, James left the Common room to find Sirius, and beg him for forgiveness.


	22. Tapestry Day

It was only after James had left the Gryffindor Common room far behind him that he realized that he had no idea where to look for his friend. Sirius could have been anywhere; he had always been the most adventurous of the Marauders, and discovered many of the hidden passageways used on the map himself.

_Speaking of which, that map would prove very useful right now… But Sirius has it. I hate irony…_

Sighing James decided that there was no point in going back to the common room, as he would only become the center of unwanted attention. So, he just continued wandering around. And as he wandered, he began to think of his life and how badly he'd messed it up. He'd ruined everything.

Just then, his depressing thoughts were cut of by the faint sound of soft footsteps and purring, coming from around the corner…

_Oh Merlin, don't let that be Mrs. Norris!_

But James knew that it was. Looking around wildly for an escape, he realized that he was only a few halls down from a worn founder-era tapestry, which concealed a secret passageway. So, the moment she turned the corner into his hallway, he shot a quick Stunning spell at Filch's cat. Then James bolted off towards the passage. He knew that he only had a few seconds before Filch caught up with his frozen partner in crime, and if he saw James after that, there would be _big_ trouble.

He needn't have worried, though, as he made it to the passage entrance with time to spare. Panting slightly from his mad dash, James pulled the tapestry aside, revealing smooth stone steps which led down, James knew, to the dungeons. He followed them quickly but silently, and found himself thinking back to when he and his three best friends had first discovered the passage.

It had been a rainy Saturday morning in their fifth year, and they had all been lounging around their dorm, moping about their various problems. It almost made James grin to recollect what they had been complaining about: Remus had recently performed poorly on a Charms test, Sirius had failed to turn Snape's hair purple for more than an hour, James had been turned down by Lily and Peter had likely felt miserable only because every one else was too. Then, out of the blue, Sirius had declared that it was about time they got back to searching for secret passageways to put on their map. Actually, his exact words had been:

*""*

"It's tapestry day!"

Moony, used to hearing Sirius make random exclamations, didn't even look up from the Charms book he was reading, "What was that Padfoot?"

"It's tapestry day!"

James rolled his eyes at his friend, "Yes, we've got that, but _what_, pray tell, _is_ tapestry day?"

Here Sirius proceeded to look at James as if the answer was obvious, and didn't he understand plain English?

"It's the day we go around to check behind _every single_ tapestry in the castle for passageways, why?"

This succeeded in tearing Remus's attention from his book, "Prongs, tell me he's joking."

"If only I could…"

"But there are at least a _hundred_ tapestries in the school; this would take all day!"

James and Peter exchanged a horrified glance, and James turned back to Sirius, "Mate, there's _no_ way."

"Come on guys, it'll be fun!" Sirius exclaimed with what was, in the other three's opinion, completely ungrounded enthusiasm, "And besides, if we're lucky, we might find a secret passage into a girl's dorm…"

And that, as far as they all were concerned, was reason enough for them to go through with the endeavor. They found exactly five new secret passageways that day. Five passages, two snogging couples, and some unfortunate student's stash of butterbeer and Honeydukes chocolate. By the time they returned to their dorm that night, their stomaches were full and their earlier troubles completely forgotten.

*""*

The memory ended almost too soon, and James found himself all alone again. He walked down the dungeon hallway with no inkling of where he was going or why. He just knew that he needed to stay away from everything; to try and vent some steam. He was so caught up in his own thoughts about the past and how quickly he'd forgotten it that he didn't notice the dark figure ahead of him until they were only meters apart. It was Snape, and he stood still in front of James, blocking his way. He had, apparently, been waiting for him.

"What do you want, Snape?" James asked, fixing the Slytherin boy with a tired but contemptuous glare. He really wasn't in the mood for a fight.

But Snape only shrugged , "Nothing really, Potter. I was just watching you enjoy your well deserved misery."

James frowned, narrowing his eyes, "_I'm_ not the miserable one, Snivellous."

His tone was challenging, but Snape only shrugged once more, "If you say so. But don't worry, Potter, if you're not miserable now, you soon will be."

"And why, pray tell, is that?" James asked, trying to conceal his surprise that Snape knew how he felt. How could Snape possibly know about James's social problems?

As if sensing James discomfort, Snape's mouth twisted up into a smirk. "Don't you know? Well then, I suppose I'll have to _enlighten_ you." he began, speaking slowly:

"First of all, you've grown to hate one of your best friends, and you've forced the second one to choose between the two of you. As for the last so-called _friend_... well, you never really _did_ care about the last did you? Your little dream team just isn't as glorious as it used to be, I'm afraid, and without them, Potter, you're _nothing_. And one of these days dear Lily's going to realize that, and leave you all alone."

Snape paused to let his words sink in, and then gave James a malicious smile, "Your time is over, Potter. You're over."

As Snape spoke, dark figures emerged from the shadows of the hallway behind him. As they came closer, James recognized them as Mulciber, Bellatrix and Avery.

James felt a cold rush of hatred for the boy in front of him sink into his soul, like an icy wind. It consumed him, and kept him from thinking clearly. He reached for his wand, and without pausing to worry about repercussions, shot a strong and silent Expeliarmus jinx at Snape, disarming him. And then all hell broke loose: The other three Slytherin students instantly retaliated, and bombarded him with a vast array of hexes, which James only just managed to duck away from and block.

Snape, who was still wandless grinned at his struggling opponent, "Doesn't feel good does it, having no one behind you. Having a group of people taunt and jinx you until you're miserable. Just admit it Potter: you're miserable. Admit it and we'll leave you to your depression."

James gave a grunt as he threw himself to the ground to dodge a frightening looking spell fired by Bellatrix. Then he fired a stunning spell at Avery, successfully taking him out of the battle as well, shouting, "Just get lost, will you?"

"Not until you admit that you're _pathetic _and _alone_." Snape sneered. He was inches away from breaking James, from finally proving himself superior… He could almost taste it.

Grabbing Mulciber's wand from him, he took James by surprise with a hard jinx. James hadn't seen him coming, and was thrown roughly to the ground with the wind knocked from his lungs. "Pathetic and alone", Snape repeated in a low whisper, his wand aimed at James's head.

But then something that Snape hadn't anticipated happened: a strong jinx flew over to him from somewhere in the hallway behind James, and hit him with all the force of a brick wall. It threw him off his feet and slammed him back into Bellatrix with so much force that they both crashed to the floor.

And then, there was a voice coming from the same direction the jinx had, "Alright Snivellous, I'll grant you that Prongs here _can_ be quite diddle pathetic at times… but he's _not_ alone. Now take this, you snake!"

With that, another hex flew over James' head at Mulciber, hoisting him into the air via his ankle. Snape, who had finally managed to detangle himself from an irate Bellatrix, peered into the hallway behind James to discern the whereabouts of the speaker. Now, he _knew_ very well exactly who it was: he'd heard that arrogant voice too many times for him not to recognize it, but he couldn't see _anyone_ else in the stark stone hallway. With it's plain walls, evenly spaced candles and lack of adornment, the passage didn't have anywhere for the person to hide, yet _somehow_ he remained out of sight.

_What the banshee's going on here? How is he…_

_Wait. I've seen this trick before: he's using Potter's cloak!_

Cursing, Snape started casting a revealing spell along the hallway, blind and deaf to all else going on around him. He knew that as long as James's friend remained cloaked, there was no way that the Slytherins could get at him.

Unfortunately for Snape, while he was preoccupied with finding the unseen intruder, the intruder occupied himself by taking out all three of his Slytherin allies, leaving them stupefied for a good half hour. This left James free to do the same to Snape, who realized his mistake just as the stunning spell hit his face.

*""*

Alright guys, I know it's been awhile... and to be honest, the only excuse was a bad round of writers block - plus a bit of an addictiion to the Big Bang Theory and American Idol. I was also out of town for a few weeks, but now I'm back and enjoying the awakening of spring.

Anyway, hoped you liked it, Ciao =]


	23. After the Storms

Once all of the Slytherin students had been taken care of, Sirius took off James' invisibility cloak and turned to his friend. Holding it out to him, he spoke:

"Sorry I borrowed this without permission, mate, but I figured I might need it when I saw you cornered by Snivellous's buddies on the map."

James shrugged, "It's no problem: I'm glad it came in handy - but mate, I really need to talk to you about something else. About that letter you said you sent, warning me that you wouldn't be able to come out on the full moon… you weren't lying. And I was also wrong about you and Heather, and a lot of other stuff, and – "

James would have went on with his awkward apology, but Sirius held up a hand to stop him, "Mate… it's alright."

The bespectacled boy swallowed, "Oh. Good."

Sirius nodded, and then both boys stood in an uncomfortable silence, looking anywhere but at each other: they hadn't spoken agreeable words to one another in too long, and neither was entirely sure how to put his raging emotions to words. After this had gone on for sometime, a remarkable thing happened.

Suddenly, without a word spoken between them, both boys looked up into the others eyes, then wordlessly leapt forward, to clasp their arms around each other in a fierce hug, releasing all of the feelings they had been repressing for so long. James felt the sting of tears in his eyes and held his best friend as tightly as he could, "Padfoot, I can't tell you how sorry I am. Don't _ever_ let me be such a – "

"I won't, as long as you don't let me be one either. I'm sosorry about everything, mate. _So_ sorry…"

They let go and looked back at each other, both teary eyed. Hastily wiping the salty drops from his face, James laughed. "Sirius, I never knew you were such a softie."

The handsome boy laughed as they began heading back towards their Common Room, "Heck no: I was cutting onions before I got here. What's your excuse?"

James smirked, "I got a whiff of you and your onions."

Sirius stuck out his tongue at James childishly, "There are girls at this school who would commit _murder_ to get a good whiff of me, I'll have you know."

"Before or after you've used your famous love potion on them?"

"Love potion?" Sirius asked indignantly, "I don't use love potion! I rely on a fail proof combination of devilish good looks and my _irresistible_ charm."

"What's the charm, _Accio Hot Girls_?"

Sirius grinned, "Naturally. How else would I have found _you_?"

James rolled his eyes, but couldn't help laughing, "Aw Padfoot, I can't tell you how much I've missed you."

"Of course you did: I'm magnificent."

"Alright, now you're starting to irritate me."

"_Perfect_: that means that the world's been restored to its natural order."

"No, if _that_ were true, you'd be behind bars somewhere."

"And you'd be swinging from trees and eating bananas."

Once again James rolled his eyes, but he still had a goofy grin plastered to his face: he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so carefree and happy.

Apparently Sirius felt it too, because he said, "You know, I actually think we should be _thanking_ Snape for attacking you. I mean, look what it did for us!"

James snorted, "Yeah, let's send him a fruit basket."

Sirius shrugged, "Why not?"

"Can we at least make it an _exploding_ fruit basket? Remus is really good at those timed explosion spells."

"Naw, a regular fruit basket would probably freak ol' Snivellous out all the more."

"Good point: let's do it."

And just like that, it was as if the two of them had never been apart. It was almost too good for James to believe.

*""*

Lily Jane Evans was not a temperamental person. She had always been very level headed and controlled – the Eleanor of the Dashwood family. But when Alice and Geeta got back to their dorm, they found her lying on her bed while reading _Wuthering Heights_ and shedding silent tears.

They were instantly by her side, sitting cross legged on her bed, and Alice quickly took the book from the redhead's weak grip: "Lily, put that away and wipe your eyes."

Without resisting, Lily followed both orders. Then Geeta, who had missed Lily's spat with James, asked, "What happened, Lily? What's wrong?"

Sitting up, Lily shook her head childishly, "Nothing, everything's fine."

"She had a little fight with James while you were with Remus."

Lily turned to Alice, green eyes flashing, "It was not a _little fight_, alright? Besides, what I'm really upset about is that he won't confide in me. _Diddle_, recently, he hasn't even wanted to spend time with me. He's far too busy moping about Sirius, and even when we are together I can tell that his mind is elsewhere. I suppose I'm just upset because I'm losing him."

Geeta's eyes went saucer wide, "Losing him? Lily, are you out of your mind? He'd never leave you… he's too abnormally obsessed with you to do that."

Alice nodded fervently, "She's right: he'd never risk losing you. Which leads me to believe that if he wasn't telling you everything, it was because – and this may be difficult for you to understand - you really didn't _need_ to know everything."

Lily let out a groan of frustration, "But if he doesn't tell me what the fight is about, how can I fix it?"

"Perhaps he doesn't _want_ you to fix it. James is a big boy now, you know. Sometimes it's alright to let him handle things on his own..."

"Geeta's right, Lils. You _can_ be a bit meddling at times…"

Lily was aghast, "Meddling? You mean like a nosy neighbor? Or a no good busy body?"

Alice shook her head, "No, Lily. You're more like a parent: when you love someone too much you can't stand to see them in pain… so you do _everything_ in their power to help them…. Even when – "

Lily finished the sentence for her, "Even when it's better to let them fix things for themselves."

Geeta grinned, "Hallelujah, we finally got through to her!"

Alice grinned too, "They said it couldn't be done, but by George, we've done it!"

Rolling her eyes, Lily thanked her lucky stars that she had such great friends. She finally realized where she'd gone wrong, and that she and James weren't finished – not by a long shot if she could help it.

_All I've got to do is give him some space… he'll tell me everything when he's ready, I know it._

And so, with these hopeful thoughts in her head, she went back to reading. She chose Persuasion: a novel about forgiveness and rekindling love.

*""*

I finally managed to write this chapter in a way that I didn't hate... and I can't apollogise enough for being such a slow updater: it's shameful...

But, thanks for reading =]


	24. Night Patrol Again

Lily had only been reading for a few minutes when she heard a timid knock on the dorm's door.

She had been about to get up and let whoever it was in, when Geeta pointed her wand at the door, magically unlocking it: "Come in!"

The door swung open, and a small third year girl shuffled into the room mumbling something about a message for Lily.

Trying her best not to laugh at the girl's extreme shyness, Lily smiled at her, "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

At this the girl took a deep breath, and repeated her message with the same enthusiasm as a child repeating a memorized presentation: "I said that James Potter asked me to ask you to please come down to the Great Hall to patrol with him because the Prefects that were supposed to patrol cancelled late."

Lily swallowed, "Oh. I see…" Then she hesitated. She knew perfectly well that the only reason why James would arrange to patrol with her would be that he needed to talk to her, but she wasn't sure whether or not she was ready to face him.

_Honey, it's now or never._

Deciding to listen to the voice in her head that sounded like her mum, she made her decision. Turning back to the third year, she nodded, "Alright, thanks for the message. I'll go down to meet him right away."

* * *

_She's not coming. She's definitely not coming. I mean diddle, __I__ wouldn't even come._

_But what if she does?_

James had been pacing back and forth in the Great Hall for a good ten minutes, wondering whether or not his girlfriend would show up and feeling more and more panicked as the seconds passed. He knew that he had been a git for snapping at Lily when he knew that she couldn't help trying to fix everyone else's problems. It was all part of her incurable niceness, the niceness that had led to her befriending Snape, treating her awful sister with ten times as much love and respect as she deserved, and giving James a chance at her heart, despite the years of hatred between them.

Oh, Merlin, James loved her so much. He didn't know what he'd do if she didn't show up…

And then he heard it. Her soft footsteps echoing through the empty stone hallway. He looked up, knowing it was her before he could discern any of her features, and swallowed hard when he saw her indifferent expression.

For a moment, James was struck by an unshakable feeling of déjà vu: Lily looked almost exactly as she had during their first ever night patrol together. It had been on that night that James had told her off for the first time, and it had been the first real step they had taken towards getting together. This memory gave James a bit of much needed hope, and he smiled softly at Lily.

"You came… thank you."

Lily shrugged, "_Someone_ has to finish the patrol. So, what ground do we have to cover? The dungeons?"

James shook his head, "No, we only need to cover two things: the first is the argument. I think its time for me to tell you the truth about what happened between me and Sirius."

Lily froze: this was it. Now was her chance to finally learn what had been bothering James for so long, and try to prevent it from happening again. She was being taken into his confidence at last, and yet…

"Wait a moment, did you say _happened_?" she asked him with a sudden urgency in her eyes, "Does that mean your fight's finally over?"

James couldn't help but smile as he nodded, "It ended about five minutes ago actually, because – "

"No!"

James frowned, and felt the panic from moments earlier resurfacing, "What do you mean, _no_? This is _fantastic_ for me. Lily, you may not like him, but Sirius is my _best mate_, and -"

"No, that's not what I meant at all!" Lily cut in, horrified at what James thought. "What I meant was only that… I don't _want _to know why the fight ended. And I don't have to know why it started. James, you were right from the beginning, it wasn't my place to meddle at all, I should have just tried to make you feel better, the way you _always_ do with me… but instead I went into complete Head Girl, control freak mode. I guess what I'm trying to say is… I'm sorry. I'm _really_ sorry. Can you ever forgive me?"

"You want _me_ to forgive _you_?"

Lily nodded. And James burst out laughing.

"Lily, you seem to forget that you are all I've ever wanted since fifth year." James said truthfully, reaching up to gently touch her cheek, "And yes, when I say that I've wanted you, that includes everything about you, from your mental need to be the perfect student to your bloody controlling nature. That's all part of what makes you…. "

"Yes?"

"It's all part of what makes you a diddle _annoying_ know it all."

Lily let out a huff, but then her expression changed to a sly grin, "So you're admitting that I _do_, in fact, know everything."

James grinned back, "Not a chance, love. You're forgetting that dirty jokes fall under the umbrella of everything: you couldn't tell one to save your life."

"_James_!"

"_And_ you're a failure at Quidditch, Lily."

Lily pouted, "That's not true, I _know_ how it works. The game consist of two beaters, three chasers, a keeper, and –"

James lifted a finger to his girlfriend's lips and shook his head sadly at her, "You may know _how_ it works, but you're still no good at maneuvering your broom."

"That's what she said."

For a moment, James didn't understand. Then, his eyes bugged out of his head as the connotations of Lily's comment fell into place in his head.

"I stand corrected." He whispered, looking at her in awe, "You _do_ know everything."

Then they both started giggling at the sheer silliness of their conversation, and Lily gave into her emotions, throwing her arms around James's neck. He wrapped his arms around her too, and kept on laughing, even though he could feel tears forming in his eyes. In his wildest dreams he had never imagined that in one night he'd be able to undo all of the damage to his life that had taken months to complete.

Everything was alright again. Lily was in his arms again and he could hold her as close to him as he wanted. He could whisper that he loved her and even kiss her if he wanted to. Everything was alright again.

* * *

Something was very wrong, Sirius could tell. He felt the same sense of disaster he'd had before his parents had used Cruciatus on him the first time, and just before his fight with James had first started: his stomached was clenched with dread, and his body went into a cold sweat.

This time, he was feeling this way because had told Heather to meet him in the Greenhouse at 11:30 pm and she hadn't shown up. It wasn't like her to miss one of their rare chances to meet up, she loved him far too much for that, and she would always find some way of sending him a message if she was being unavoidably held up.

And that was not all. Heather had been acting very uneasy for the past few weeks now, keeping their meetings short and acting more guarded than ever about her life in Slytherin. But exactly what was wrong with her, Sirius couldn't say.

For these reasons, Sirius felt the need to check on Heather, in any way he could. And, naturally, the first solution he could come up with was:

"Remus! Remus, wake up! I need you to help me find Heather on the map. I… is that a _hickey_ on your neck, mate?"

The last comment made Remus jump out of bed, blushing. "What? Er, no! Of course not. It's a _rash_."

Sirius raised an eyebrow, "Well, mate, I've never seen a rash that wears sparkly lip-gloss before. And…" Sirius leaned in to sniff Remus's neck, "it must be infected or something, because it smells like strawberries."

Remus's blush intensified, "Er, what were you saying about finding Heather on the map?"

Sirius's teasing grin vanished, "She didn't show up to meet me, and I'm worried about her."

Remus nodded, knowing that Sirius wouldn't ask for his help unless he really needed it. "Right. Hand over the map."

It only took Remus a few minutes to locate Heather's name, and he found it not in the Slytherin Common Room, but in the Entrance Courtyard. "Here she is!"

Sirius looked over Remus's shoulder and at the little ink dot that represented Heather. "What in Merlin's name is she doing there?"

They both puzzled over the question while gazing at her dot, when all of a sudden something happened on the map which they had never seen before: Heather's dot disappeared.

* * *

I know, I know, I'm a horribly lazy person for not updating before now, and I'm truly very sorry for making you wait. I mean, I know that I've always had little to no patience for authors who take their sweet time updating, but I've been going through a bit of a rough time in my life, and I'm still trying to pull it all together again.

Thanks so much for your patience, and I hope you enjoyed it =]


	25. Can't be True

Lily and James could hardly believe their eyes. They had been patrolling on the first floor when an eerie green glow flooded in from the windows facing the entrance courtyard. Curious about where the light was coming from, they had then peeked through one of these windows, and what they saw made them both gasp from utter shock.

It was a sight they had both seen before, but they had only ever seen it plastered across the covers of the Daily Prophet, or on the pamphlets which the Ministry handed out warning of the impending rise of he-who-must-not be named. Infamous and chilling, it was a symbol which represented one thing and one thing only: _death_. In other words, a massive, freshly cast dark mark was suspended over Hogwarts School.

"No…" Lily breathed softly, instinctively reaching for James's hand. He took it pulled her into his arms, "This can't be happening."

Both of them were frozen to the spot for a moment with sheer horror, unable to look away from the floating skull and writhing green snake. They both knew that Voldemort's sign meant that someone had been killed, but neither of them could bring themselves to believe it.

Then, shouting voices broke their reverie. At first the voices were too far away to be understood, and then Sirius and Remus came barreling into view: "Come on, Moony! We've got to – PRONGS! WHAT THE BLOODY DIDDLE IS GOING ON?"

Sirius looked rather mad as he jumped at James, shaking his best friend by the collar. "The map's not working right…"

"What's he talking about?" Lily asked, helping Remus to break the two apart, "Is it that enchanted map of yours?"

James, slightly thrown off by all of the questions, started with Sirius, "What do you mean it's not working? It _always_… "

But he trailed off as he noticed Remus, whose eyes were fixed on the window to the entrance courtyard. Apparently, with his enhanced eyesight, he could make something out something that the others could not. "Oh _no…"_

The werewolf took off without another word, running through the door which led to the courtyard. The others followed him without question, and soon they were all standing in the cold night air, ankle deep in snow. They were not cold for long however, because a mirror image of the dark mark burning in the sky above was burning in the centre of the empty yard. At least, it was empty except for the girl who was lying unmoving next to the flames, her golden hair splayed across the cobblestones and the tips of her Slytherin robes already flaming.

It took a moment for the others to realize who the girl was, but by that time the wretched, animalistic and haunting howl had already left Sirius's lips. It was an utterly horrible and unforgettable sound which sent chills up Lily's spine as she watched him run to the still corpse on the ground and fall to his knees in front of it, sobbing so hard that he hardly noticed the others dousing the rapidly growing flames which threatened to engulf him, the body, and the rest of the courtyard. All he could register was her sweet, innocent doe eyes staring blankly up at him, and the knowledge that they would stay that empty forever more. "No, no, no, god NO! … _Heather_…"

Meanwhile the others were trying desperately to understand what had happened as they finished putting out the fire.

"I don't understand… what happened?" Lily asked shakily,

"I dunno. You don't think that _she_… you know…" James started to say as he stared hopelessly at his despairing best friend.

"No, how could you even think that?" Remus answered quickly. To be honest he hardly knew Heather, but somehow he was positive that despite being in Slytherin, she was not twisted enough to send up a dark mark, set fire to the yard and then kill herself.

"Then what happened?" James asked, his voice cracking. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Sirius, who was cradling Heather's ashen body in his arms and crying and crying as if his world had ended.

Suddenly a loud exclamation of, "Oh, _Diddle_!"came from behind them, at the charred entrance to the courtyard. Four heads turned and faced a horrified looking Peter, and one look at him told them all that he knew something about what had transpired. Without a moment's hesitation, Sirius launched himself at the round boy, pinning him harshly against a hard stone wall and pointing his wand at his nose, "What _happened_?"

"N-nothing. It wasn't my fault!"

"Peter, tell me what you know or I _swear_ they will keep find pieces of you hidden around this courtyard for the next _hundred years_."

Peter whimpered, and Sirius went on, "Your wailing _ghost_ will be trapped between these four walls for all eternity, and the black lake will turn _red_ with your blood."

"It was _Mulciber_! Mulciber and the other Slytherins!"

"What did they do, Peter?" Remus asked softly before Sirius could say anything. He could tell that Peter's nerves could not take many more threats.

"Th- they _made_ her do it because she was a Slytherin half-blood! They forced her – that is, they used the Imperious. I…. well, I heard them planning it this afternoon, but I didn't think that – "

"PETER, you goddamned _IDIOT_!" Sirius roared, slamming his fist against the wall above his friend's head, "Of course you _didn'_t think. Now come _on_! Those bastards have got to still be around here somewhere and If I have to listen to you for a _moment _longer, I might lose it."

All of a sudden they heard the sound of loud voices coming from inside the school building. Sirius charged towards the sound, hardly caring whether the others were with him or not, and slammed the wooden doors to the entrance hall open. The crash startled the ten Slytherins who were standing inside, clearly in the midst of an argument of some sort, and they all turned to look at the group of Gryffindors.

A wave of pure hatred passed between the students as the Gryffindors recognized Snape, Mulciber, Avery, Bellatrix, Yaxley, Regulus and some other sixth years staring back at them. Then, without any warning, all hell broke loose. The hall was lit up by a cascade of jinxes, curses, fire and hexes as the students dueled. James launched himself at Mulciber and the much slower Avery, Sirius took on his brother and Yaxley, Lily kept Bellatrix and another sixth year occupied, Remus fought two other sixth years and Peter faced off with the last. As for Snape, everyone was too absorbed in their own battles to notice him creep off towards the dungeons. This was because he had honestly had no part in what he felt was a stupid attack against Heather, other than having inspired the use of the Imperious curse on her by his own attack on Lily months earlier. He felt that getting involved now would be a very stupid move indeed, and he was quite right: Sirius and the others were fighting with an anger and hatred they had never known, and as such, they were much more dangerous than normal.

In fact, instead of losing intensity as time went on, their dueling seemed to gain fire as they fought. Sirius soon had his brother and Yaxley unconscious, and turned his wand on anyone who got in his way. His emotions had driven him to dueling at a level which was far above his already impressive skill level, and his bloodshot eyes and quick reflexes intimidated everyone he faced. Unfortunately, the Slytherins had the added advantages of numbers and ruthlessness: they were not afraid to use Unforgivables and dark tricks. This made their attacks powerful and dangerous, keeping even Lily, James and Remus on their toes.

The Gryffindors had just started to get frightened when a thick, impenetrable wall of magic sprung up between them and their antagonists, forcing them all away from each other. Then, the all too familiar booming voice of Dumbledore echoed through the room, "STOP! Drop your wands, all of you. -"His voice was so commanding that even Mulciber and Avery listened as he continued, "To my office, NOW!"

*""*

The Gryffindors had been waiting on a bench outside of Dumbledore's office for almost an hour now, as he spoke to the Slytherin students. In all of this time, none of them said a word to Sirius, as they knew that there was absolutely nothing they could say which would make things better. But after only a few minutes Lily had gotten up from her spot between Remus and James to sit beside him on the edge of the long bench. When he had made no move to get away from her, she put a hand on his shoulder and held it tight.

He still hadn't spoken, but he had looked at her then, his pain filled grey eyes holding her green ones with such agony and despondency that it was impossible for her to look away. Then, to Lily's complete surprise, his eyes softened, and he whispered, "Thank you."

They were only two little words, but they meant the world to Lily. This was because in those two words she could hear an apology for the prank Sirius had pulled on her at the Holiday Ball, genuine regret for how he had behaved towards her and James for the past few months, acceptance, _and_ she heard gratitude. He wanted her to know that he was grateful to her for being there for him, despite their not so pleasant history.

Still unsure what to say, but wanting him to know that she understood, Lily gave his shoulder another squeeze.

*""*

"What do you mean you only _expelled_ them? They committed a bloody _**murder**_!"

Dumbledore sighed at the outraged teenagers standing before his desk, "Mr. Black, I have already informed you that Mulciber and Avery are being sent to Azkaban, and they were the only one who actually committed a crime."

"What about Snape? And Bellatrix? Or Yaxley? They all helped, and you _know it_ Professor!" James exclaimed.

"Mr. Potter there is no _proof _of that: Snape was not even present when I found you. And to be completely honest with you, the rest of them all have parents who are so high up in the Ministry that getting them expelled will be a challenge in itself."

"But that's _insane_!" Lily finally cried, unable to keep quiet any longer, "Justice should _not_ be for sale, Professor! I simply _can't_ believe that you of all people – "

"I have no choice. While I do have the right to banish them from Hogwarts, I do not have the power to send people to Azkaban."

"But you have to do _something_!" Sirius growled, "_Please_…"

A single tear rolled down Dumbledore's withered cheek as he saw Sirius's helplessness, "If only I could."

They were all silent then, allowing the magnitude of the night's events to sink in. Most of them had yet to believe that the horrors they had witnessed had actually transpired.

"Miss Mallory's body will be buried close to her parents as soon as possible." Dumbledore finally said, "You are all invited to the funeral. Also… it would be best if you all did not talk about this to anyone. It would only spread the fear around, and fear is _one_ thing the students do not need any more of at present. Miss Evans, Mr. Potter, I am going to be counting on you two to help everyone feel safe here. I chose you two because I _knew_ that you could handle the pressure that comes with times like these. Do not let me down."

"We won't sir." Lily spoke with conviction, but held tightly to James's hand for reassurance.

"Also…" Dumbledore's voice grew soft, "Heather Mallory did not have very many possessions, but one of the objects found in her trunk was this. " He pulled out a little brown leather journal from a drawer in his desk. "Technically it should be given to her most immediate family, the Mulcibers… but I _believe_ that she would rather you have it, Mr. Black."

And he handed the book the Sirius, who took it silently as his tears continued to fall. He was to overcome to say anything in response.


	26. Always Hope

Sirius stayed up all that night reading Heather's journal, and it turned his world upside down.

Heather Mallory was Mulciber's second cousin, on her mother's side but her father had been a muggle. Because of this both her mother hand father had been brutally murdered by Voldemort himself in front of an audience of other wizards, to warn them that "un-pure" marriages had consequences. Heather had been five years old.

Then she had been taken in by the Mulciber family, but not out of the goodness of their hearts: she had become a second house elf to them, and the only reason why they didn't chuck her onto the streets was because of an unbreakable vow Mulciber's father had made to Heather's mother at her wedding.

So, little Heather had lived like a slave, ordered about, fed only enough to sustain her and beaten when she failed to do what she was told. But the worst part, according to her diary, was the verbal abuse. The called her ugly, stupid, disgusting and untouchable in her lowliness. It pierced Sirius's heart to read about all of the things which had happened to the girl he loved, but he could not stop reading… and as he read, little pieces began to fall into place in his head.

He understood why Heather had never believed him when he called her beautiful: no one else ever had. He realized why she had been so timid around him when they first met: he was a pureblood and she had been expecting the same sort of abuse she received at home. From reading her journal he also learned that she had been really brave to stay at Hogwarts over the break as she had been supposed to board the train with Mulciber. Instead, she had snuck away from the train before it left the station and hid at Hogwarts, hoping to enjoy just one holiday away from her tormentors.

After that came the pages she wrote about Sirius. He realized that she had loved him ever since their first breakfast together, and that her love for him ran even deeper than his for her. For Heather, being with Sirius was the only happiness she had ever known. He was _everything_ for her, the only thing she lived for and it broke his heart to learn it. She had deserved so much _goddamn_ better….

Finally, Sirius learned why Mulciber had decided to finish her off. He had wanted to become a death eater, and the easiest way to be inducted was to kill a muggleborn or blood traitor. Also, Mulciber had learned from Snape (who had, in fact, learned from Peter) that Heather was secretly seeing Sirius. Taking another stab at the dream team was just frosting on the cake for the Death Eater wanna-be's.

On the very last page, Heather had scrawled a goodbye. She had known that Mulciber was going to kill her that night, and written the following:

_This is it. I know that they're going to finish me tonight, I can hear them talking about it right outside my dorm and it's too late to get help. But it's alright: after all, it's only me they are going to hurt tonight, everyone else will be OK. _

_If they think that they're not going to get caught, though, they've got another thing coming to them. Because I, Heather Mallory, am a witness to everything they've done. I've heard them plotting and discussing their plans to join Voldemort, and I put those memories in a pensieve under my bed. That's right, Mulciber, and Avery, you two will be caught and you __will__ be convicted._

_And Sirius, if you ever read this – and I hope that someday you do – I want you to know that if I want to live today, if I want to keep on going and not have today be the end, it's because of you. You made my last few months beautiful and for that I can never be grateful enough. But please… don't spend too long missing me. I loved you because even though you're family was as awful to you as mine, you fought back and stayed the lighthearted and fun loving person you are. Now, I know you think that you're just a normal, happy-go-lucky teenage boy, but every time you decided not to dwell on the sorrows you had faced and cheered me up instead, you were proving how truly strong and brave you were. You gave me hope that I could one day stand up too._

_Also… I want you to know that I __truly__ love you with all of my heart. I mean, I know that you've probably had loads of girls say that they loved you, stud as you are, but when I say it… know that I really __mean__ it. I love you, Sirius. I love you, I love you, I love you._

_Forever yours, _

_Heather Mallory._

*""*

_One Week Later_

Sirius was alone, lying splayed across his bed with the journal in his hands when the other Marauders walked into the Boy's Dormitory. Tentatively, they all sat down on their beds and waited as Sirius sat up.

He was a mess: his normally perfect hair was unwashed, his eyes were bloodshot with bags underneath, and he still wore the sweat stained and scorched shirt from the night of the battle. Despite this though, he looked almost calm.

This gave James the courage to form the shape of a deer with his hand, by placing his middle and ring fingers on the tip of his thumb and pointing his pointer and pinkie fingers into the air. Remus responded by howling as softly as he possibly could and Peter twitched his nose like a mouse.

Any onlooker would have thought that the boys had gone completely insane, but the Sirius the gestures were only too familiar: they were initiating a Marauder meeting. To complete the ritual, he formed a barking dog with his own right hand, a ghost of a smile touching his face. It felt as though it had been years since their last Marauder meeting, which had taken place just before Lily and James got together. Being with his best friends finally felt right again.

It was Remus who first broke the silence, saying, "I feel sort of ridiculous saying this now, but according to our rules, someone's got to: I call this Marauder meeting into order."

He was met with general silence, so he went on, "The reason why we're here is to… aw, _diddle_ it all. We just don't want you to be alone, Padfoot."

Sirius's voice was hoarse from sobbing and lack of use when he spoke: "Thank you, Moon-pie."

Unable to help themselves, James and Peter sniggered. Even Remus almost smiled as he said, "If I wasn't here to comfort you, I'd _pummel_ you for calling me that."

"I know, that's why I did it." Sirius said, the corner of his mouth turning up for just a moment. Then he let out a little sigh and looked down at the journal in his hands. The other Marauders waited for him, knowing that he would come around at his own pace and that trying to rush him would make things worse. Finally, he spoke, "They're burying her tonight. At seven."

"We'll be there… we'll _be there_ with you, Pads." James said quietly. His voice quavered just a little as he tried to sound stronger than he was for his friend.

Sirius was quiet again, for what seemed like an agonizingly long period of time, and then he said, "I finally get you, Prongs. You and Lily, I mean…. "

"I know."

Sirius looked up now, meeting James's eyes with his own tearful ones, "I… I really loved her, you know. I _did_. I just never told her because of my _stupid_ pride… always having to protect my bloody player image. But I would have died for her, if I could have…"

James moved to sit beside Sirius on his bed, putting an arm around him, "I know, mate. I know."

The other Marauders also moved to sit beside Sirius, and Remus put another arm around his dark haired friend.

"I've think I've grown up." Sirius said suddenly, looking at James, who couldn't help almost smiling at this, "What?"

"I've grown up." Sirius repeated, still speaking primarily to James, "Everything's just… _different_ now, somehow. You've grown up too you know: you grew up for Lily and I couldn't take being left behind. I didn't understand what you felt for her… Oh, Merlin if I'd only known I would _never_ have given you such a hard time! I've been an _idiot_, Prongs, and I ruined _everything..._ I've got nothing, man. _Nothing_."

And then the barely controlled emotions which Sirius had been desperately concealing flooded out in tears, his body shaking with sobs and his handsome features contorted with grief. Unable to watch, James threw his arms around Sirius and engulfed him in a big bear hug. Remus, who usually hated hugs, also joined in. Peter alone held back from the hug, afraid that by his moment of weakness and failure to stop the Slytherins he was no longer welcome to join his friends. But for once, Sirius _noticed_ that Peter was not joining in, and pulled him into the hug as well.

For Sirius, it was a small, insignificant action, but the lesser Marauder felt so happy that he started crying as well. In fact, when they broke apart Sirius saw that all of their cheeks were damp with tears, and smiled. Then, without warning, he pulled his best friends close to him again and started to laugh.

It was at _that_ moment when they all realized that it was going to be alright. They knew then, that they still had each other, and that their friendship would help them get through it all, no matter _what_ crossed them.

*""*

"Move over, Lily, I can't see!"

"Quiet, Geeta, they'll hear us!"

"Guys… do you really think that we should be spying on the boys?"

"Quiet, Alice!"

The three girls were huddled around the door to the boy's dorm, watching them attempt to reconcile. It had been Geeta's idea really: when she had seen James, Remus and Peter head up to the boy's dorm to talk to Sirius, she had been unable to resist grabbing her friends and watching the show.

"What are they doing now?" Alice asked from behind the other two girls, "Are they still mad at each other?"

"No, they're hugging!" Lily said joyfully as she watched her boyfriend hold his best friends close to him.

"Really, I want to see!" Alice exclaimed, "Move over!" and she pushed Lily aside a little so that she could stand beside Geeta and peek through the only slightly ajar doorway.

Lily, who loved watching James express his soft side, let out a little grumble of protest, "Hey!" and she moved to get a better look by pushing Geeta aside a little. Then Geeta pushed Alice. Soon they were too busy making room for themselves to notice what was going on with the boys at all... that was when they heard the sounds of sobbing and sweet proclaims of friendship coming from inside the boy's dorm change into a very different sound.

The girls froze, exchanged bewildered glances, and Lily realized that her mouth was hanging open, "Are they… _laughing_?"

All three of them leaned into the doorway to check, and were met with the singular sight of all four Marauders cackling like hyenas who had been fed copious amounts of chocolate. In fact, Remus was biting his fist to try and control his guffaws, Peter had tears streaming down his face as he snorted and James and Sirius were literally rolling on the floor and clutching at their stomachs.

And they just didn't seem to be able to stop: every time they tried to regain their breath, one of them would get going again, or two of them would make eye contact and burst into fresh snickers. It was quite the silliest thing Lily had seen in all her life.

The three girls simply stared at them for almost five entire minutes, unable to believe their eyes. Finally, Lily turned to face her friends, half amused and half just plain confused, "What the _diddle_?"

*""*

It took a few months, but Sirius eventually started acting like his old self again. Of course he still missed Heather, feeling her absence with every step he took like a nail driven into his foot, but he didn't allow the pain to detract from the many joys he also had. The only discernable change in him was that he didn't date anymore; he couldn't bring himself to do it. He knew, somewhere in the depths of his heart, that he would never again love anyone as he had loved Heather… but he was alright with that, because the love he had shared with her was more beautiful than he had ever imagined anything could be.

The Marauders stayed strong and together for the rest of that year, and their antics ensured that it was a year no one (especially not the graduating Slytherins) would ever forget. Tragedy had brought them even closer, if possible, and they cared for one another even more than most blood brothers did. That is, except for Peter. The truth was that he never truly felt like one of the gang, despite their best efforts to include him. He continued going to Slytherin meetings with Snape, but never betrayed his friends again during his final year at Hogwarts.

Remus and Geeta also stayed together for the rest of that year, despite her parents warning her against him (both because he wasn't an Indian _and_ because of his furry little problem). Still, they were just about the happiest couple who had ever lived at the castle.

Except for Lily and James, of course. True, they continued to drive each other crazy almost every day, but they would have gone even _more_ insane if kept apart.

As for Dumbledore, he wasn't sure why, but for quite some time now he had had a rather ominous and dark nursery rhyme playing over and over in his mind like a mantra. Even more disquieting was the fact that the rhyme was rank with premonition…. But the old wizard decided not to let it bother him. After all, no matter how bad or hopeless things seemed at the moment, he _knew_ that evil could never win and that somehow the world always found a way to make things right again.

*""*

Ring a ring o' roses

A pocketful of posies

Ashes Ashes

We all fall down

*""*

Well, there it is! And yes, I know that it was quite a bit darker than the first, but hey, I did warn you all! Besides, Lily and James lived during one of the darkest periods of wizard history, as Voldemort reached his prime and grew even stronger. It wouldn't have been realistic if they remained untouched until after they left Hogwarts.

Still, I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for reading =]

P.S. James made a wreath of roses for Lily's hair during the Holiday Ball, Heather gave Sirius a posy for his pocket when he went to greet his friends at Hogsmeade Station, ashes were produced during the fire, and I'll just assume that the last one is obvious...


End file.
